My Great Sonic Adventure
by MTP
Summary: After a freak accident draws me into the world of Sonic things are only going to get messy. Co written with XPERT and Kit Kat
1. In A Flash

Chapter 1 – In a Flash 

If there was one thing I hated it was maths! I had done it all my life and just when I thought I'd gotten away from it….BAM! It comes back and bites me. I'd just arrived back at my room after spending two hours trying to understand integration at university.

I collapsed onto the bed with a groan. My computer was humming quietly to itself. I always left it switched on. It was much easier to get online that way. I pulled myself from the bed and sat down next to the screen. I spent a while checking a message board and then opened my emails. The counter read seven new messages. I groaned.

"If just one of those is anything interesting I'll be pleased."

Five of them turned out to be spam from various companies, the sixth was a review of one of my stories and the seventh was from XPERT.

"I wonder what he wants?" I said to myself as I clicked the message.

My computer suddenly started making strange noises.

"Oh don't crash on my AGAIN! I hate you!"

I reached down to press the reset button but stopped short. The cables at the back of my computer were glowing blue. I was seriously freaked out. I looked back at my monitor to see that my monitor had gone black and a swirl of blue energy spun around on it. I rocked back in my chair and was about to get up when the swirl erupted from the screen. It shot towards me. As it hit I instantly felt extremely dizzy. It was like I was drunk. The world around me went blurry and I passed out.

I woke a few seconds later to find myself colliding with a large haystack. I spluttered slightly as the hay stuck up my nose. I crawled my way out of the stack and looked around. The haystack was pretty much the only thing around. A cold wind started to blow and I wrapped my arms around myself. Why did I feel colder than normal? I looked down at myself and almost died of shock. Instead of seeing my arms I saw a pair of white furred ones. I quickly surveyed the rest of my body finding more fur and a total of nine tails behind me. I blinked hard. Whatever had happened had turned me into a white nine tailed fox. I blinked again. I was totally stunned. What was going on? Was I dreaming? I remember falling unconscious. It was then that I noticed a large sword slung around my waste on a belt. I drew it out and looked at it. The blade was a bright silver colour and the hilt was made of what looked like gold. The blade had a large engraved carving of nine tails on it. I moved it around a bit and then stopped. This wasn't right. How did I have a sword? Granted I had done martial arts when I was younger and had used a couple of weapons……but never a sword. Then why was it that I felt like I could take on an entire army by myself? I shook my head and returned the sword to its sheath. I decided to take a small walk and see if I could find anything that could explain where I was or what was happening.

After a short time I found myself getting very tired. What was wrong with me? I never get tired this quickly. I looked down and found my answer. Somehow I had managed to find my way into a bog and my feet had sunk into the mud quite far. I pulled them out and continued on a bit more and finally worked my way out of the bog. I stood at the entrance to a large forest. It was then that I noticed the trees were covered in fruit. My stomach suddenly started to rumble. I raced forwards and started to pick a few pieces off the tree.

A few minutes later I had eaten somewhere in the region of twenty pieces and was feeling rather sleepy. I walked into the forest trying to find a place to lie down. Suddenly I heard a voice behind me.

"Freeze intruder." Cried a robotic voice.

I turned to see several large and quite nasty looking robots running towards me. My mind was split. My natural instinct was to run but for some reason I drew my sword. I was surprised. One of the robots suddenly raised its arm and fired a laser beam at me. This time my natural instincts took over. I spun and ran, the laser hitting a tree behind where I had been standing. The other robots turned and fired also. I found myself turning and running towards the robots and was somehow managing to dodge all the laser fire. My mind was so confused now it had let go. I swung my sword upwards and cleaved one of the robots clean in half.

"Not so tough!" I said to myself.

"But I am." Said a voice.

Suddenly there was a rumbling and a huge flying craft emerged above the trees. It had two large engines on its side and rocket launchers pointing forwards. The cockpit opened and a figure stood up.

"Let's see how you handle my Egg Hornet you little intruder." Said the round figure.

I knew who it was. But that wasn't possible. He was a video game character!

"Eggman?!" I cried.

"That's Doctor Robotnik to you!" replied Eggman.

The cockpit closed and a volley of missiles shot towards me. I yelped and dove to the side. I knew how to stop him. I was so skilled at Sonic Adventure 1 that it should be easy. All I had to do was wait for him to dive at me and then attack the cockpit. I had to move quickly to avoid another volley of missiles.

"Come on!" I yelled, "Get you scared butt down here!"

"I'm not falling for that twice. As long as I stay up here there's nothing you can do."

Another volley of missiles hit nearby and the shock wave from them knocked me off balance. The robots standing nearby fired at me. Several shots hit me in the shoulder and the leg. I screamed and fell to the floor. My sword skittered across the floor and landed nearby. The world around me was going blurry. The pain in my shoulder and leg was immense. I collapsed to the floor and fell unconscious.

-----------------------------------------

I woke later to find myself on the floor of a metal cell. My sword and sheath lay on a table at the other side of the room. Eggman was standing over it. He turned round as I groaned and attempted to get up.

"Very interesting design." He said, "Where did you get it?"

I didn't answer him. I just stared at him with a hard expression.

"Not very talkative. Oh well, nevermind. I'll try again later."

Eggman turned to leave.

"Wait!" I yelled.

Eggman stopped and turned to look at me.

"Yes?" he said slowly.

"What do you want with me?" I asked.

"Nothing. You were stupid enough to walk into sensor range of my base."

Eggman laughed and walked off. I slumped to the floor again. My leg and shoulder still hurt badly. Stupid! Totally stupid of me. But how was I supposed to know? I should have known. I sighed. What am I going to do now?


	2. The Rescue

Chapter 2 – The Rescue 

I paced around the floor of my cell. It had been a day since Eggman had come to see me. The pain in my shoulder and leg had decreased slightly but it still hurt a bit. I was running the events over and over in my mind. Lightning, computers, haystacks, Eggman and a prison cell! It still puddled my mind. If this was the world of Sega then…….

"Where's Sonic?" I said out loud.

I walked over to the bars of my cell and looked out. There was nothing around. My sword still lay on a table across the hall. My sword? Why did I call it my sword? I've never seen it before in my life but for some reason it seemed right. It was my sword. I tried to pick the lock again but failed. I flung my arms down in frustration and walked away from the bars.

Just then there was a crashing sound. It sounded like something metal being smashed apart. I turned just as a bright red hedgehog swept into the room. He raced over to the table my sword was on and started to look at it slightly puzzled. He didn't look like he worked for Eggman. I decided to speak.

"Hey! Care to get me out of here?" I said.

The hedgehog jumped and then turned to look at me. He looked surprised.

"Woah man! Don't do that. You scared me to death." He replied.

"Wuss." I muttered under my breath as the hedgehog walked over to me.

"Hey!" he said, he had obviously heard me, "I can just leave you here."

"Ok, ok. Sorry. Ya happy?" I replied rather disgruntled.

The hedgehog smiled and knelt down next to the lock. It was then that I noticed the large spear by the hedgehog's side. He took it out and tried to break the lock with it. The head was too big and wouldn't fit. I could see him curse under his breath. Suddenly he jumped up and ran back to the table. He was about to pick up my sword when he stopped. He picked up a small notebook and looked at it. I remembered it. Eggman had left it there from earlier.

The hedgehog picked up my blade and it sparked I felt a small twang of pain in my head. It was almost as if my blade was reacting to someone else using it. The hedgehog slashed forward art the lock and it split in two. The cell swung open and he tossed me my sword. I caught it and the pain went away. I blinked in surprise.

"How'd you end up in there?" asked the hedgehog.

I gave a small laugh. How was I going to explain this?

"Well it might seem weird but….."

Suddenly all the lights went out.

"Ah nuts!" said the hedgehog, "He sure works fast doesn't he. Come on"

The hedgehog grabbed my hand and started to run forwards. For some reason I found myself able to see extremely well even in the poor light. Did the hedgehog know about that…..

"OW!" yelled the hedgehog as he collided with a wall.

….guess not I thought.

"Smooth. Really smooth." I laughed.

"Can it you." He replied.

A little while later we had reached the exit. With the base power off all the robots were deactivated. I couldn't help cleaving a few in half with my sword. I was amazed how sharp the blade stayed even when slicing metal. I slowly explained how I had appeared here and how Eggman had captured me. The hedgehog seemed to be slightly impressed at my story.

"Amazing. So your names Lynx eh? I'm Kilm." Said the hedgehog, "I got pulled here like you…..only I ended up in a slightly better position.

"Really? Wow! How many more people got sucked in? So who are you?" I asked.

"Well if you must know I go be the name XPERT."

I stopped dead.

"XPERT!" I yelled, "Then it was you who got me into this mess."

"Wait a minute. Are you MTP?"

"Yes!"

"Then I really did send that email." He replied with a small laugh.

"This is no laughing matter. What if we can't get back?"

The hedgehog stopped chuckling and looked at the ground. He seemed to be thinking hard to himself. I turned away to see a small house a little way off. I studied it for a moment.

"Hey is that?" I asked.

"Sonic's house? Yep."

"Then Tails is there too?"

"Yup."

I couldn't believe it. For a second I found myself not wanting to go home. This was too good an opportunity to pass up. I sprang forwards quickly gathering a lot of speed. It surprised me how fast I was going. I got a sudden urge to spin my tails. No I couldn't. I wasn't Tails. I suddenly found my feet leaving the ground. I looked over my shoulder to see my nine tails spinning fiercely. I was actually propelling myself along like Tails does. I was impressed at myself. I reached the house and charged the door. If it was locked it wasn't for long. I burst in and stopped. Tails was standing in the middle of the room holding a cup of something. As I barged in he turned and stared at me. He looked very nervous. My jaw hung loose as I continued to stare. Behind me Klim walked in.

"Erm….Klim…..who is this?" asked Tails nervously.

I snapped myself out of my trance and spoke.

"Oh sorry. I'm Lynx. Klim here rescued me from Eggman's base." I said.

"He's from the same place as me." Put in Klim, "It makes me wonder if anyone else has been pulled here."

"This is strange." Said Tails, "Nothing like it has happened before. How do we stop it if we don't know what it is and how do we get you back?"

"Maybe this will help." Said Klim taking out the notebook from earlier, "Found it in Eggman's base."

Tails snatched the notebook off Klim and started reading.

"Fascinating." He said, "This has all sorts of information on energy. Chaos Emerald, lightning….everything."

I looked from Tails to Klim. Klim looked a bit twitchy as if he was thinking again. I looked back at Tails as he spoke.

"Ah ha! I've got it!" he said, "It looks like if enough energy is concentrated at one point it opens a portal to other dimension and…..oh no!"

"What is it?" asked Klim snapping out of his thoughts.

"It looks like Eggman is after the Chaos Emerald. He's going to use them to try and open a portal to your world."

"WHAT?!" I yelled grabbing the notebook off Tails.

I read a passage out loud.

"Since I, Eggman, cannot seem to thwart the efforts of Sonic the Hedgehog and his friends, I will be taking my plans elsewhere to a place without them to get in my way! The best way seems to be through the usage of the Chaos Emeralds, so I will order my robots to go and retrieve them and bring them to me. Thankfully I already have the grey one, so now I only have six more to collect." I read.

"That's not good. Eggman's robot's could already have them all." Said Klim.

"I doubt it." Said Tails, "Eggman's robots are pretty weak and all the Emeralds are guarded in one way or another."

Klim nodded. I was busy flicking through the notebook. I stopped on a page and laughed. The other looked at me.

"Look at this." I said turning the notebook towards them, "Eggman even drew us a map."

Klim laughed.

"Well Eggman did it again I guess." Said Tails smirking, "He gave you a way to escape and a map to help you."

"Yeah. But we should go now." I said ripping the map out of the notebook, "Just to be sure we get the Emeralds first."

"Right." Said Klim nodding.

"Wait a sec." Said Tails, "You're going after the Emeralds now! What about Sonic? He hasn't finished resting yet."

"It's ok Tails." Replied Klim, "You look after him and let me and Lynx worry about the Emeralds."

Tails didn't look too comfortable about that. Klim noticed.

"Ok then. When Sonic wakes up you and him go for the grey Emerald Eggman has. We'll get the others."

"You sure?" asked Tails.

"Look Tails." I said, "After you busted into Eggman's base he's no doubt going to up his security. I doubt we'd be able to get in but you and Sonic might. In the meantime we'll look for the other Emerald. I can't just sit here doing nothing."

Tails sighed and then nodded.

"Alright then. Just be careful. The Emeralds are powerful and the guardians of them are very tough."

"No problem Tails." Replied Klim as he walked out of the door, "Later."

"See you Tails." I said.

"Bye you guys." Said Tails.

I turned away from the house and sighed. I wondered if Eggman's notebook had been correct. Would the Emeralds get us home or would we both be stuck here forever. One thing at a time I thought to myself as I followed Klim away from the house.


	3. A New Face

Chapter 3 – A New Face

We must have been walking for a long time. Strangely enough I didn't feel tired. I felt as if I could go on forever which I found a little strange. Klim on the other hand was a totally different kettle of fish.

"How much further is it?" he moaned.

I was getting slightly annoyed at Klim's constant moaning. I had been tempted a couple of time to trip him over with my tails but hadn't. I took out the map and looked at it.

"Well according to this it should be right in that jungle there." I replied pointing.

Klim's jaw dropped slightly.

"That place is huge! You could loose New York in there!" he said staring at the jungle.

The jungle was certainly a little on the big side but if there was a Chaos Emerald in there I had to go in. As much as this world fascinated me I wanted to go home.

"Quit complaining. If Eggman's dumb robots went in there so can we."

"Right." Replied Klim.

I pressed forwards into the jungle. At first the undergrowth was thin and close to the ground but it soon changed. Giant vines and creepers started to block our path. I took out my sword and took a few slashes at them. Our forward progress started to get slower.

"If we keep in a straight line we should be fine." Said Klim.

I nodded at him. That was obvious. I had a pretty good sense of direction anyway and a few creepers weren't going to affect that. Just then the undergrowth got a bit thinner and we found ourselves at the edge of a clearing. I blinked at the scene. A red and white cat was tied to a post and was surrounded by a large group of chao. They didn't look friendly, in fact they almost reminded me of the "devil chao" from Sonic Adventure 2. The cat was mumbling to himself quietly but I was surprise that I could here it.

"I'm gonna die. I just know it." He said to himself.

"What we gonna do?" asked Klim turning towards me.

"I'll rescue him while you distract those chao." I said quickly.

Klim nodded and a second later had charged out of the undergrowth into the clearing. I watched as he skilfully booted a chao in the head sending it flying into the air. I had to act quickly. I leaped forwards drawing my sword as I did. I was surprised how short a time it took me to reach the cat. He looked very surprised at our sudden arrival but wasn't about to turn down a rescue. I took a quick slash at the ropes and they fell away. I turned to see Klim taking a broad swipe with his spear and sending about ten chao flying.

"Thanks mate. I owe you one." Said the cat as he leaped forwards.

He ran across the clearing and drew….a frying pan! I was totally stunned by this. What good would a fryi………

I got my answer very quickly. A chao had leaped onto Klim's back and was about to strike as the cat swung the pan round and clobbered the chao hard. A loud "bong" sound echoed around the clearing. The cat and Klim exchanged a few words and then started to fend off a few more chao. I spun quickly and took off into the village to have a look around. I ran into a building and stopped. At the end was a fairly large statue with a green coloured gem imbedded in its stomach. It was the Chaos Emerald.

"KLIM!" I yelled loudly, "I've found the emerald!"

It only took a few seconds and Klim entered the building. He walked over to the statue and pulled the Chaos Emerald from its stomach. I quickly pulled it out of his hands.

"Hey this one's mine." I said half as a joke, half seriously.

"Ok then fine!" moaned Klim, "But the next one is mine."

Just then the cat entered the building.

"Hey guys." He said cheerfully.

"Any problems?" asked Klim.

"Nothing big." Replied the cat.

I looked over at Klim and noticed he was studying the cat closely.

"Hey! Wait a second!" he suddenly said, "You're Kit Kat aren't you?"

The cat looked slightly startled. Kit Kat? For some reason that name rung a bell.

"Yes I am. How'd you know?" asked the cat.

"Let me introduce ourselves." Said Klim, "I'm Klim and this is Lynx. You might know us better as XPERT and MTP."

Kit Kat's eyes suddenly went wide.

"XPERT!" he said quickly, "I'm here because of you!"

I shook my head in surprise at the statement. How many others had XPERT trapped here?

"But I only sent the email to Lynx here." Said Klim.

"I didn't get here through an email. I just clicked on your profile." Replied Kit Kat.

I turned to Klim who turned to look at me. This wasn't good. If all you had to do was click on XPERT's profile then.…..

"We have to move it! The quicker we find the Chaos Emerald the faster we can get out of here and stop others from being sucked in." I yelled and sprung forwards.

"You coming Kit Kat?" asked Klim as he and the cat followed me out of the building.

"You think I'd say no? I need to get out of here too you know. Another adventure, whoopee." Replied Kit Kat.

The three of us raced into the jungle, which on closer inspection wasn't a smart thing to do. Kit Kat said he knew the area so I decided to let him navigate out of here. This was our second mistake. I stopped and banged my fists against a tree.

"I thought you said you knew this place!" I yelled at Kit Kat.

We were lost. Well lost.

"BANZAI!" came a cry.

We looked up to see a small chao leaping out of the undergrowth. Klim stepped forwards and angled a punch directly at the airborne chao. It hit perfectly and sent it flying back into the jungle.

"Those things are getting more annoying than those Omochao things!" said Klim to himself.

"Well at least those things could tell us how to get out of here." Said Kit Kat.

"Yeah." Replied Klim.

During this time I had slumped to the floor. I sat with my back to a tree thinking. I held the Chaos Emerald in my hand. It puzzled me slightly. Not a lot of detail had been released about the Chaos Emeralds by Sega. I had heard people speculating about them though. Some people said that each Emerald had a different elemental property. Green…..maybe it had something to do with healing or life energy?

"One of Eggman's robots!" yelled Klim.

My attention was instantly back on the now as I sprang to my feet and raced to his side. Kit Kat was already there. I stood and looked. The robot was leaning deactivated against a tree. It was covered in a purple goo of some sort.

"What do you think that is?" asked Kit Kat with a shudder.

"I dunno." I replied, "But I don't like it. The sooner we get out of here the better."

Just then Klim sprung forwards and started to climb a tree.

"What you doing?" I asked.

"If I can get above the tree tops I can see how to get out of here." Replied Klim.

"Good idea." Commented Kit Kat.

"So long as he doesn't break his neck in the process." I said quietly.

I waited for Klim's directions.

"If we go that way we should be able to get out." Shouted Klim pointing.

Klim climbed down and soon afterwards we were walking out of the jungle. I let my shoulders slump. I really felt tired now. The sky was getting darker as we stopped by some rocks.

"That was too easy." Said Klim sitting down on the ground, "But I'm still tired. Let's stop here for the night."

I nodded and sat down next to him. Kit Kat frowned at us,

"You gonna sleep on the ground? Try this instead." He said reaching into his pocket and pulling out three small balloon like objects.

"What good are balloons going to do us?" asked Klim sitting up.

"They're not balloons, they're air mattresses." Replied Kit Kat.

I laughed in my head. This guy was a joke. Frying pans and now air mattresses. Man!

"Think it'll take long to blow up?" said Klim.

"Why not find out." Replied Kit Kat throwing on of them to him.

Klim groaned and started to blow his up. Kit Kat passed me one and I started to blow it up also. I usually had a good lung capacity but I was worn out and blowing this thing up was hard. About an hour later we had all done and we collapsed onto our mattresses. Klim fell asleep almost instantly. I didn't. I was slightly cold. A sudden memory came to me. I remembered a picture I had seen from Sonic Adventure one where Tails was sleeping and had his tails wrapped around himself. I nodded to myself and then brought my nine tails round and folded them around myself. One of them went behind my head as a pillow. I felt better already. I slowly fell asleep.


	4. First Battle

Chapter 4 – First Battle

"You are more powerful than you know."

"How?"

"You will find out….soon!"

I woke with a start and sat up. The sun's first rays were just starting to break the horizon. A smell of pollen and dry earth filled my nose. For a brief moment I thought I was still in a dream but soon snapped out of it. I slowly pulled myself to my feet and looked around. I blinked and stared at where Kit Kat had been sleeping the night before. He wasn't there.

"Yo Kit Kat!" I cried as loudly as I dared as so not to wake Klim.

There was no response. I shrugged to myself.

"I wonder where he went. Maybe we went to get some food?" I said to myself.

Just then the sun's rays broke the horizon and hit me. A strange feeling swept over me and I gasped. It was like I had just stepped into a hot shower. I became aware of a gentle hum by my side. I looked down. My blade was glowing an icy blue colour. I took it out of its sheath and looked at it. It had definitely not done this before. What was different about now? Then it hit me. The Chaos Emerald! I took it out and my blade glowed brighter. I moved the Emerald closer and my blade started to glow bright green instead of blue. I took the Emerald away and it reverted to its blue colour.

"Wow! That was weird." I said to myself.

I studied my blade closer. It really did feel as if I'd had it all my life. I felt I knew everything about it but I couldn't remember. It was if someone had taken all the knowledge about it and locked it in a safe. I knew it was there but couldn't get at it. I took a step back and cut downwards. The blade glowed blue again. I continued to practice a few moves with my sword for a while. I must have lost track of time as the next thing I knew Klim was talking to me and the sun was high in the sky.

"Morning Lynx." Said Klim with a yawn, "You seen Kit Kat this morning?"

"No." I replied, "He wasn't there when I got up. Maybe he went to get some food or something."

Klim nodded and then noticed my blade.

"You been practising?" he asked.

"Yeah. It's funny you know. I know there is something different about this sword. It feels like I should know too. It's as if I've owned it all my life."

"I know what you mean. It's the same with my spear." Replied Klim, "Everytime I use it I feel as if I could take on the world."

"That's just how I feel." I replied with a nod.

I took out the map and looked at it.

"Looks like this is the nearest Emerald from here." I said, "It's in the Desert of Doom. We should make tracks as soon as Kit Kat gets back."

"Sounds like a friendly place." Said Klim sarcastically, "Speaking of places. Have you noticed that none of these places so far have been in any Sonic game or cartoon? What are they?"

"I don't know. Mind you the Sonic universe is pretty varied. Some times he's on Mobius and lately in Sonic Adventure he was on Earth. I think this is some other world….possible created by us."

"This is doing my head in. You think were in the internet now or a real world orbiting a star in our night sky?"

I was starting to get annoyed at all of Klim's questions.

"How should I know?! I have no clue about anything here. I just want to get out of here!" I shouted at him.

"Woah……sorry guy! We'll find a way out."

"Yeah…….mind you I have thought about staying a few times."

"Me too. I mean this is a real adventure. No-one else has had anything like it apart from Kit Kat and the rest of the 'World Beyond Me' guys. Saying that we need to find a way out so others don't get trapped here. And we can't go messing up Sonic and Tails lives. They have enough problems with Eggman around."

I groaned in my head. Why did Klim have to go off into these long speeches?

"Eggman's a jerk." I replied, "Even with an IQ of 300 he acts like a kid!"

"Well this warp idea was one of his. Don't forget that."

I nodded at Klim. He had a good point there. I looked at Klim's spear in its pouch.

"Care to practice?" I said suddenly.

"Huh? Where did that come from?" asked Klim a bit surprised.

I shrugged at him.

"Well ok then." Said Klim, "But only if you use the blunt side of your sword. I'll use the other end of my spear too."

I nodded at him and turned my sword over. Klim took his spear out and flipped it around. Suddenly he charged at me and brought the end of his spear upwards. I leapt backwards and spun my tails. I had been practising using my tails like Tails did and could now hover a little bit. I hovered just out of range of Klim's attack range and then leapt forwards myself with a horizontal slash. Klim ducked the attack and thrust forward with his spear. It hit my in the leg and knocked me over. A second later I was on my feet and blocking Klim's next attack. I swung my tails forwards and knocked the feet out from under Klim. He fell down but was instantly on his feet. I was about to attack again when a large purple blob shot past us and hit the ground a few meters away. I glanced over to see that the grass was melting into a liquid where the blob had hit.

"What going on?!" yelled Klim as he ducked to avoid another blob.

I looked to where the shots were coming from. At the edge of the jungle sat a large round purple blob. It was at least four times the size of me. It fired two blobs at me and I leapt to the side to avoid them.

"What is THAT?!" I yelled.

"Where's Kit Kat when you need him?" said Klim as he raced towards the blob.

I watched as he thrust forwards with his spear. It went into the blob and left it with a 'splosh' sound. The attack made the blob shudder didn't appear to do anything though else. It was then that I noticed a small sphere in the centre of the blob.

"Hey Klim. Aim for that sphere thing. That could be the weak spot!" I yelled at Klim.

"I see it!" replied Klim as he thrust forwards again.

The attack was dead on target and hit the sphere. The blob shuddered again and Klim cheered. Just then the blob began to shiver.

"LOOK OUT!" I yelled as it started to throw small purple blobs all over at an incredible rate. I tried to dodge them but there were too many. I was hit several times. Several blobs hit my tails ripping one off completely and shredding several others. I screamed as I collapsed to the ground. The pain was incredible. I hadn't felt anything like it. Just then I felt a strange sensation run through my mind. An image of the green Chaos Emerald came into focus. My mind was suddenly fixed on it and……

I opened my eyes. I was standing on my feet holding the green Chaos Emerald in my hand. The pain was gone. I looked behind me to find that my tails were completely healed, even the one that had been ripped off. Klim was staring at me in disbelief. Just then it struck me.

"So the Emerald does have healing powers!" I yelled.

"You can use the Emerald?!" yelled Klim totally amazed.

"It would seem so…..woah this is weird."

"Yeah….but think of this." Said Klim, "You said healing powers. It can't help if you're dead."

The idea made me slightly queasy. I didn't like that thought.

"What do you think would happen if we died?" I said, "You think we'd end up in our world again?"

"I don't know…..but my instincts say no. Let's just say I don't plan on finding out." He replied.

I nodded and looked back at the jungle. I suddenly went pale and spun back to Klim.

"….Do you think that thing got Kit Kat?" I said a bit shakily.

The idea made me queasy again. It looked like it did the same to Klim too.

"No time to dwell on it." Said Klim suddenly, "We have to find the Emerald before Eggman."

I couldn't believe how harsh Klim was being. Kit Kat was our friend. But he was also right. If he was gone there was no point to dwell on it. The longer we hung around the more chance that more people would be dragged into this world. I nodded slowly and we set off.

A little while later we were walking along in the 'Desert of Doom'. The name almost made me laugh. There wasn't anything doom like here. The sand was a bit weird though. It was a dull brown colour and the whole place was depressing.

"You sure there's an Emerald here?" asked Klim.

"Yeah. Well according to the map there is." I said looking up.

Klim was walking in front of me acting like a windbreak, diverting all the sand and wind around me so I could read the map. He must be having a hard time I thought. Suddenly Klim pointed to the side.

"Look there it is. The shrine." He said excitedly.

I stared at the map and then at the shrine.

"No it's not. That's a mirage. The shrine is straight ahead of us." I replied.

Just then the image disappeared and Klim nodded.

"Looks like you were right." He said, "How much further is……ARGH!"

I looked up just in time to see the top of Klim's head disappearing down a hole in the ground. I raced to the hole and looked in. Inside all was dark and I couldn't see anything.

"KLIM!" I yelled.

I looked into the hole again and then at my tails. I wrapped them up and looked back into the hole.

"I hope I can do this." I said to myself as I leapt into the hole.

I spun my tails trying to form some lift. I wasn't ready for it though and I lost my flight almost at once. I started to fall. I looked up as the light marking the hole got smaller and smaller until it vanished from view.


	5. Worms And Emeralds

Chapter 5 – Worms and Emeralds

I fell for quite some time. The thought of playing twenty questions with myself was actually starting to form when it happened. With a loud crash I collided with a sloped surface. I was almost sick at the impact. I curled myself into a ball and rolled down the slope until I hit a flat surface. I uncurled and looked around. I was surprised how well I could see in the dark. Even so I couldn't see more than a few feet. Just then I felt Klim slap me on the back. I shook my head and looked at him.

"Glad you could make it." He said with a small laugh.

"Where are we?" I said ignoring his joke.

"The world down under." Laughed Klim.

I was getting annoyed again. Doesn't this guy ever stop making jokes?!

"Stop jerking around!" I yelled turning back to the wall and slamming my fists down on it, "How are we supposed to get out of here?"

"I might be able to give you a few ideas if I could see." Replied Klim.

See huh? I'll give you see. I took out the green Emerald and looked at it. The glow lit up the area around the Emerald quite well. I focussed on it.

"Lynx? What is it?" said Klim.

"Huh? Nothing." I replied and continued to focus.

Just then a bright green glow erupted from the Emerald filling the room with light. Klim covered his eyes at the flash.

"Argh! Not so bright!" he complained.

"Never happy are you." I said lowering the light level a bit.

"You're getting good with that thing." Said Klim motioning towards the Emerald.

I nodded and looked around. We were in a room with large stone walls. Absolutely no way out.

"So for the second time how on Earth do we get out of here?" I said.

"Can't you fly?" said Klim pointing at my tails.

I was at the point of strangling him now.

"WHAT?! Do you think I'd be standing here if I could? I can barely hover nevermind fly! It probably took Tails years to learn how fly! Do you know how much it hurts?!" I screamed at him.

Klim looked like he was sorry forever opening his mouth. He looked up at the tunnel that we had fallen down.

"You think this is a trap?" he said.

"What? A conveniently covered hole in the middle of a desert….hmm…….oh that's a tough one." I replied slightly annoyed.

"Jeez! Ok sorry!" replied Klim.

Just then there was tremor and the floor and walls began to shake. I started to wobble and almost fell over.

"What's happening?" I said.

"You're supposed to be the answer man." Replied Klim steadying himself against a wall.

Just then the opposite wall collapsed. I looked over and stared. Sliding out of the hole was a giant worm. I almost yelped.

"What the….?" Said Klim before a piercing roar rip the air.

"We just left this party." I yelled drawing my sword.

I leaped forwards aiming a blow at the worm's head. The strike hit but hardly did anything. The worm roared again and swung round at me. Its mouth opened and it tried to bite me. I sprung backwards.

"Kiiy! It's got teeth!" I yelled to Klim as a warning.

Just then the worm roared and swung round away from me. Klim had struck a blow to the worm's neck with his spear. Now was my chance. I sprung forwards. As I did I felt as it time was slowing down. Years seemed to pass. My sword glowed bright blue as it struck the worms neck and passed through. Time suddenly seemed to revert to normal and I looked around. The head of the worm was lying a few feet away but it was still alive. It's body thrashed around hitting the walls. The ceiling started to shake and pieces of it started to cave in.

"ARGH! Lynx we gotta get out of here." Yelled Klim as he jumped up onto the worms back.

Its body led away and up a tunnel. It was the only was out. Klim began to run up the worm's body and I followed quickly.

"Think this'll lead to the surface?" I asked as I caught him.

"Hope so." He replied, "Look out!"

The worm's body swung upwards against the ceiling almost crushing us. We both decided to stop talking and just run. After a few moments was saw sunlight in the distance.

"Sunlight. Come on!" I yelled as sped forwards.

I was surprised at how fast I was going. A few seconds later I collapsed to the ground outside. I never thought I'd be so glad to see sand.

"I do not want to do that again!" I said as Klim collapsed beside me.

"Me neither." Said Klim looking around, "Hey look! Isn't that the shrine?"

I looked up. A small stone building was sitting in the desert.

"Looks like it but I can't be certain. My sense of direction has been messed up with at little trip." I replied.

Klim got up and walked over to the building. I followed him. As I got to the entrance Klim returned holding a yellow coloured gem.

"Got it." He said as he pocketed the gem and walked outside, "So what now?"

"Hmm…….looks like……a place called Rage Mountain. It's to the north of here." I replied looking at the map.

Just then the ground shook and four huge worms appeared. Not again I thought to myself.

"Let's get out of here." Yelled Klim.

I couldn't argue with that. I spun and ran after Klim. A thought came to me. What if I used my tails? I had done it earlier for a short time. I wrapped them up and spun them. My speed increased two fold. I was amazed. Now I knew why Tails could keep up with Sonic. Just them I felt one of my tails slipped out of alignment. I wrapped itself around my foot and I fell to the ground. I screamed as I fell. I looked up to see Klim stopping and then back to see the worms gaining on us.

"NO!" cried Klim.

A sudden golden light went up around him and he took out the yellow Emerald. Klim look puzzled for a moment. As if he was unsure about what he was doing. Just then he raised the Emerald and a bolt of lightning shot across the sky. It hit one of the worms and it roared. I quickly got to my feet and drew my sword. I spun towards the worm and launched a strike at it. The blow hit its neck and its head came straight off. The bolt of lightning changed its target and hit another worm. I felt the power of the Emerald start to effect me too. Maybe it was something to do with the one I had? Time started to slow down again. I felt a strong surge of energy and took a sideways blow at another worm. A large wave of energy erupted from my blade creating a shockwave like front in front of my blade. It hit the worm and it disintegrated into pieces. The third worm now came under attack and I launched another strike at it taking its head off. I turned to see the bolt striking the last worm. But this time it was different. It seemed more powerful. Before I could do anything the worm suddenly exploded. I looked over at Klim. He suddenly collapsed. I ran over to him.

"Klim! Klim you alright?!" I yelled at him.

"I'll be….be ok…….just need…..need a little break." Replied Klim as he fell asleep.

I looked at him and then back to the worms and blinked. I sat down next to Klim with my back to the wind. I spread my tails out behind me as a kind of makeshift windbreak. I sighed and waited.


	6. Rage Mountain

Chapter 6 – RageMountain

I remember falling asleep a little later. The heat of the sun reflecting on the sand must have made me very drowsy. I woke up when I heard Klim's voice yelling.

"YAHHHH! Kit Kat's ghost!" he cried.

I brushed my sleepiness away and jumped to my feet. Kit Kat was standing there looking annoyed at Klim. Kit Kat walked over to him and smacked Klim in the side of the head.

"Moron! I'm still alive. Cat's have nine lives. If I was really dead you'd have nine ghosts haunting you right now." He said.

I saw Klim calm down and I relaxed slightly too. Kit Kat spent the next few minutes or so explaining what had happened to him. Finally Klim spoke.

"So you're saying that there are 3 other versions of you running around here?" he said.

"Not in this world. In other worlds. I'll have to deal with them in my own time." Replied Kit Kat.

"When this is all over eh? Well be careful." Said Klim.

"Thanks." Replied Kit Kat.

I was still finding it hard to take in.

"We should hurry then." Said Klim, "We have to get out of here and stop others from getting trapped."

"Right let's go then." Said Kit Kat.

I pulled myself off the ground and started to follow them. I was still lost in thought but I still remembered to check the map I had. The others seemed to start flagging after a while. The sand dunes just kept on going. I was surprised again that I didn't feel tired, it was really starting to freak me out. Just then the desert started to thin out. Grass sprung up through the sand. We were at the edge of the desert now, not far to go I thought. We came to the crest of another dune and there it stood. A giant cone shaped mountain.

"Rage Mountain?" asked Klim.

I nodded at him.

"Where is the next Emerald after this?" said Kit Kat, "Curiosity you know."

Curiosity killed the cat I thought to myself as I answered him.

"Just to the east on a small island." I said looking up from the map.

"How are we supposed to get to an ISLAND!" cried Kit Kat.

He obviously didn't like water.

"Haven't you got a raft in one of those pockets…..or maybe we could use those mattresses?" smirked Klim.

"Enough all ready. Let's deal with this Emerald first. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it." I said.

Swish! I thought to myself. When I came up with jokes they really were good ones. Klim looked at me funny for a moment.

"Ok then." He said.

We struck out and soon reached the mountain. I raised an eyebrow as we reached it. A small dirt track led up the side of the mountain. Klim set out towards it.

"Well how convenient." He said.

"Wait!" I said.

Klim turned and looked at me.

"What?" he said.

"Doesn't this seem a little too convenient? Why would there be a path here?" I said kneeling down.

I looked hard at the ground.

"It looks like something cut through here." I said.

"Like what?" said Klim, "We're in the middle of nowhere. What could possible be here?"

Klim set off up the path. I glanced over at Kit Kat who appeared to be thinking the same as me and then followed Klim up the path. We made quick progress and soon we were about halfway up. Klim was starting to look scared. Was he afraid of heights? I knew I was but I didn't look down. Soon the path got very narrow and we had to go single file. I walked in the middle between Klim and Kit Kat. Just then something caught my ear. I had the biggest ears in the group being a fox and could hear virtually everything.

"Hey, do you hear something?" I asked.

Klim and Kit Kat stopped to listen. There was a faint rumbling sound in the distance. It started to get louder. I didn't like it. Suddenly a large perfectly spherical boulder came into view as it careered down the path towards us. My face fell. Klim jumped off the edge and grabbed onto the edge of the cliff. I saw Kit Kat take out his yo-yo and lasso a rock before jumping off also. I suddenly had a though. Gathering all my strength I leaped over the edge and spun my tails. I suddenly remembered what had happened last time I had done this back in the desert. I had fallen down that shaft. The pain that had hit me last time happened again. It was almost like someone was pulling my tails out one by one, hair by hair. I almost screamed but managed to hold it in. I fell a few feet with no effect. This is it I thought. I'm going to die. I closed my eyes but then felt myself going up. I slowly opened my eyes. I was hovering, I was actually hovering. The whole thing had taken less than two seconds. The rock flew past and I hovered back onto the path. My tails stung like crazy but that was a secondary problem. Klim was helping Kit Kat back onto the path.

"That was close." Said Kit Kat turning to Klim, "Thanks Klim."

"No problem. Let's just get to the top before another rock comes down." Replied Klim.

We all nodded and ran up the path. It was getting steeper but we had a reason to hurry now. We reached the top very quickly. I couldn't believe my eyes.

"I wasn't expecting this. What we going to do now?" I asked.

"This is going to be tougher than we thought." Said Klim looking over at me.

I looked back at the hole. Yes hole. We were standing on a ridge. The mountain fell away on both sides of us. In front of us it fell into a large bowl filled with lava. Rage Mountain was actually a volcano! I cured myself for not making the connection with the name.

"Hey look there a path!" yelled Kit Kat suddenly.

I looked at where he was pointing. A small path wound its way down into the volcano. The end of it couldn't be seen because of the heat haze and smoke from the volcano.

"The Emerald better be down there." Said Klim.

"It is….I can sense it." I replied.

"I dunno…." Said Klim.

"Let's go!" I yelled and leaped over the threshold and into the basin.

I could hear Klim and Kit Kat scrambling down after me. The path wound down and then levelled out next to the basin. The lava was no more than five feet away. It was hotter than a blast furnace down here. I wafted my tails behind me to try and fan myself cool. Just then I saw it.

"LOOK! Over there!" I yelled.

A small stone structure like the one in the jungle and desert stood in front of us. The shrine.

"That's it!" shouted Klim running forwards, "Let's get the Emerald and scram."

Klim neared the shrine but before he reached it he was flung backwards by an invisible force.

"FOOLS!" boomed a loud voice.

Suddenly a huge red creature appeared in front of Klim. It held a large fork and had horns. It was a…..

"A….DEVIL?!" cried Klim.

The creature stabbed forwards at the ground bound Klim. He was quick and in a flash his spear was out and blocking the attack. He twisted his spear and thrust upwards at the creature's torso. The creature dodged the attack and jumped forwards at Klim. I quickly drew my sword and jumped into the fight. Klim dodged to the side and I used the distraction to strike a blow to the creature's leg. It roared and swung round at me. I lost my balance and fell over. The attack came in. I closed my eyes…this was DEFINETLY it! There was a clang and I opened my eyes. Klim had managed to block the attack for me. I leaped up and looked at him.

"Thanks!" I shouted.

"No time for chat. Let's finish this!" he yelled back at me.

It was then that a yo-yo flew over my head. I looked over at Kit Kat….had that been an attack?

"Why won't it work?!" yelled Kit Kat.

Just then I saw a yellow spark crackle across Klim's quills. There was another crackle and Klim drove his spear into the ground. I shook my head as the end came up under the creature scoring a powerful hit. It roared again.

"YOU……YOU WILL PAY FOR THAT!" it roared and disappeared.

"All right!" cried Klim as he raced towards the shrine. I looked over at Kit Kat. He was standing close to the edge of the lava. Too close…….FAR TOO CLOSE! The whole mountain suddenly shook causing Kit Kat to lose his footing. He was going to fall!

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" I cried and leaped at him.

I caught hold of his arm and pulled backwards. Kit Kat wobbled and fell backwards onto the ground. I lost my footing and fell on top of him, almost falling in myself. We picked ourselves up and Kit Kat shot me a thank you expression. Just then Klim came running out of the shrine holding a red coloured Emerald. We all turned and ran up the path.

"What was that?!" shouted Kit Kat.

We all glanced over our shoulders to see that the lava was rising in the basin.

"It's going to blow!" screamed Klim.

I ran between them both and held out my arms.

"…….grab on!" I said quickly.

Klim gave me a horrified expression.

"You……you can't be serious!" he said.

"Do you have a better idea?!" I yelled at him.

That must have done it. Klim grabbed my arm. I reached over and grabbed Kit Kat. I increased my running pace and spun my tails. The pain quickly returned. I angled my tails upwards and spun them quicker. Suddenly the pain ebbed away. It started to feel natural. My feet left the ground and very soon so did Klim's and Kit Kat's as their full weight dropped on me.

"WOAH! You….you're actually doing it Lynx!" cried Klim, "Keep it up!"

I didn't need to be told that. I cleared the rim of the volcano and the land fell away under us. I aimed for a small hill a few miles from the volcano and landed as gently as I could. I collapsed to the ground exhausted and turned my head. The volcano was exploding. Jets of red lava shot out of the basin we had been in only moments before. We all watched as if flowed down the west side of the mountain towards the sea. It was then that I noticed a small island just off the coast. It was the one holding the next Emerald. The lava hit the sea and cooled. It hardened to form a large bridge like structure between the land and the island. Cross that bridge when we come to it eh? My joke was actually happening!

"Must be fate." Said Klim with a laugh.

"Yeah I guess." I replied with a few gasps.

"Hey what's the matter Kit Kat?" said Klim.

I looked over at Kit Kat. He was looking totally down.

"I….I couldn't do anything to help you guys with that demon thing. I tried but……I couldn't!" he said.

"Hey don't worry about it." I said getting up, "It's not your fault. Just wait until your back to normal, you'll be ok."

"Thanks." Said Kit Kat with a smile but he still looked slightly down.

"Here take this." Said Klim handing Kit Kat the red Emerald.

Kit Kat looked at it for a few seconds.

"What do I do with it?" he asked.

"Just hold onto it that all. When the time comes you should be able to find its power like we have. THEN you will be able to do the damage." I said to him with a huge smile.

Kit Kat beamed back at me. His spirits had obviously been given a boost by my words.

"Thanks you guys. I owe you one." He said.

"No problem." Said Klim, "Let's just get that next Emerald."

We all turned and headed towards the coast.


	7. The Aqua Realm

Chapter 7 – The Aqua Realm

We slowly approached the lava bridge. I was surprised at how quickly it had set and gone cool. But then I reminded myself that this wasn't my world and things probably didn't work the same way. No kidding I thought to myself as I looked at my hands. A white fox with nine tails? How on earth…or should that be Mobius did I end up like this? I didn't deny it was cool. I had always wanted to be a Sonic character and at the moment I looked very similar to one of my fan characters. Kit Kat speaking broke me out of my thoughts.

"You sure this is ok?" he asked hovering his foot above the hardened lava.

"Yeah sure." Replied Klim, "This stuff is rock now, igneous if I remember correctly."

"The next Emerald is just ahead." I said half to myself as I stepped onto the bridge and took out my map.

We continued along the bridge and soon found ourselves standing on a lush jungle island. It reminded me of the jungle we had found Kit Kat in. I looked at my map and then up at Kit Kat.

"Well at least we shouldn't get LOST this time." I said with a bit of slight irritation.

"Hey give it a rest Lynx!" said Klim, "We are out of that problem ok."

I nodded and turned back to the path. Why was I so hostile at the moment? I didn't know. Maybe it was just the situation we we're in? My friends and family were probably worried sick about me. How long had it been? At least three days…maybe more. I needed a bit of space, a little air to clear my head. Hey that's it. I twisted my nine tails and spun then instantly producing a massive amount of lift. I was propelled three meters off the ground with just one spin, I was impressed. I must have been about 20 meters up when I heard a voice behind me.

"Yo Lynx! What you doing?!" cried Klim's voice.

"I just flew up here to get a better look at things. The shrine is just up ahead." I yelled back and flew forwards.

Yeah…a better look at the situation and a bit of breathing space to calm down. I must have been flying at a good 30mph. It wasn't long before I touched down in front of the shrine. For some reason flying just seemed natural now. I wondered how long it had taken Tails to learn to fly? With only two tails he surely mustn't have as much lift ability as me….listen to me. I'm talking as if THIS is normal. I shook my head and walked into the shrine. I was hoping to find another Emerald to add to my green one I already had. Sure the ability to heal myself was nice but I was looking for something I could use to attack. Klim had the yellow Emerald and could control lightning and Kit Kat had the red one from Rage Mountain, even though he hadn't used it yet.

I walked into the shrine not waiting for the others. They would catch up and besides I wanted this Emerald. As I entered I stopped dead. There was nothing here. The room was totally bare, not a single statue….or anything else for that matter. All that was here was a blue tile on the floor. I walked over to it and knelt down besides the tile. It looked a bit….odd. I reached forwards and put my finger on it. I got a shock as my fingers passed through it. My fingers started to feel wet. I didn't like it and tried to pull my fingers out. To my horror I couldn't. If anything I was being drawn in.

"KLIM! KIT KAT!" I yelled.

I wished I had waited now. Suddenly a blue light sprung up around me and I felt myself being pulled forwards. I suddenly felt wet……very wet! ARGH! I was underwater. I panicked slightly before I realised I was surrounded by a strange bubble that allowed me to breath. I relaxed slightly until I saw something heading straight for me. Three figures were approaching armed with large tridents. They were…..WHAT?! Mermaids?! Now I really freaked out. Three mermaids armed with tridents heading straight for me. There was only one thing to do. I drew my sword and spun my tails. They acted like a large propeller, churning up the water behind me in a massive vortex.

"KI-YA!" I screamed as I delivered the first blow.

My sword struck the trident of one of the mermaids and it split clean in two. The mermaid looked completely stunned. Bet you weren't expecting that I thought to myself. I spun catching the second mermaid in the vortex from my tails. She was flung backwards and out of the fight for a moment while I dealt with the third one. I'm doing pretty well to say I'm on my own I thought. Just then something hard hit me on the back of the head. I was stunned badly and stopped spinning my tails. The second mermaid had come up and clouted me across the back of the head with the blunt end of her trident. My head spun and I sat there doing nothing until I realised that the mermaids had grabbed onto me. The next thing I knew I was in a cage and my sword was missing. I took a hold of the bars and shook them hard. They didn't move.

"Let me out!" I screamed, "KLIM! KIT KAT! Where are you guys when I need you?! LET ME OUT!"

I continued screaming for a few minutes before anything happened. I saw a mermaid swimming towards my cage dragging someone with her. The mermaid stopped and then spoke.

"This fox has been screaming for you and some other person called Kit Kat." She said, "Do you know him?"

Klim! He'd get me out of here.

"Klim! I am I glad to see you. I….." I started to say.

"What mess have you got yourself into now Lynx?" said Klim obviously highly annoyed.

"So you do know him. Can you explain why he attacked three of our people then?" said the mermaid.

I turned round and crossed my arms.

"I didn't know….." I muttered.

"I'm sure he was just startled." I heard Klim saying, "We have never seem mermaids before and had no idea we would end up here in the first place."

I turned to see the mermaid nodding.

"Ok then you're free to go." She said unlocking my cage and looking directly at me, "You're just lucky you didn't hurt anyone or you would be in big trouble."

I swam out of the cage and turned to Klim.

"Thanks bud." I said.

"No problem." Replied Klim.

Just then we both heard a familiar cry approaching.

"ARGH! WATER! WATER! I HATE WATER! HATE IT! HATE IT! HATE IT! HELP! KLIM! LYNX!"

It could only be Kit Kat. Soon a mermaid appeared dragging the screaming cat behind her.

"I think he's a bit wrong in the head." She said to the other mermaid.

I almost laughed. The other mermaid nearly groaned.

"Go now, but tell me there are no more of you." She said.

"Nope. This is all of us." Said Klim.

"Oh by the way. You wouldn't happen to know anything about where the Chaos Emerald might be?" I asked casually.

The mermaid spun at me and for a moment I was unsure what she was going to do.

"What business do you have with the Chaos Emerald?" she shouted.

"Woah!" I said trying to back up, "We're not going to steal it or anything. We just want to stop Robotnik getting his hand on it."

"They are safe enough where they are." Said the other mermaid, "They do not need your protection."

"But Robotnik is even more determined than ever this time." Injected Klim, "Besides we already have three and we need them all to get back to our world."

"You're world? Explain." Said the mermaid.

Oh wait a go Klim I thought. Why not just tell everyone?

"There's a portal linking our world to yours. We need the Chaos Emeralds to close it." I said.

"Hmm….well in that case you should come and speak to our queen." Said the mermaid.

Queen? Oh great I thought. I wondered what trying to bow would be like underwater. The mermaid swam off and we followed. Kit Kat was constantly complaining about the water. He really was bugging me now.

We eventually arrived at a large hall and inside sat the queen. I couldn't help but stare. She was beautiful. Myself, Klim and Kit Kat spent a little while explaining our story in full to her after which she agreed to help us providing…..

"You must prove your skills to me. If I give you the Emerald it must not fall into the wrong hands." She said.

Alright, A fight. I could handle that. No problem. I had nearly defeated three of her people before and with Klim and Kit Kat it should be a breeze.

"No point in saying no." I said, "We have to get this Emerald."

"A fight! In the WATER! PERFECT!" whined Kit Kat.

He really was bugging me now!

"Are you ready?" asked the queen.

We nodded and she placed her hand on a small crystal on her throne.

"Then let's begin." She said and pressed the crystal.

Behind us a cage opened and I turned to see a shark darting out of it. What the? I thought we were fighting some of her people.

"ARGH!" cried Kit Kat as he pulled his tail out of the way of the oncoming shark.

The shark hit a column next to the queen's throne. Maybe he wasn't as annoying as I though he was. The shark doubled back and Klim launched himself forwards thrusting his spear out in front of him. The shark pulled upwards and Klim's attack missed by a few inches.

"Trained him myself." Said the queen smugly.

Really? Now I was even more determined to prove we could do it. I spun my tails creating another vortex behind me and shot at the oversized fish. I swung my sword round and time slowed down again. I locked my sight on the shark's tails and in a slow flowing movement brought my sword down. The strike hit slightly off but still cut deep into the shark's tail. The shark spun and shot towards me only to be hit in the chin by Kit Kat who had brought out his frying pan. The shark turned again and this time shot at Klim. I spun my tails trying to get to the shark before it got to Klim, but I couldn't. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Kit Kat stop and draw something out of his pocket. It was red in colour and looked like…….a Chaos Emerald. He raised it in front of himself and closed his eyes. The Emerald suddenly glowed and I felt the water heat up slightly. I looked over at the charging shark. It had slowed and the water around it was glowing red. The shark itself then started glowing red and stopped. It rolled over and started to float upwards. I blinked. Kit Kat had just hot boiled the shark.

"I DID IT!" yelled Kit Kat ecstatically.

"Way to go!" yelled Klim.

I smiled. Kit Kat suddenly didn't seem so annoying anymore. I spun my tails and propelled myself over to the queen. She was staring unhappily at the boiled shark but handed over the blue Chaos Emerald all the same.

"Yo Lynx!" yelled Klim, "Since Kit Kat just saved my life why not give him the Emerald?"

"Alright." I said a bit reluctantly.

I gave the Emerald to Kit Kat. I had wanted this one but Kit Kat deserved it more than I did this time.

"That's odd." Muttered Kit Kat starring at the Emerald, "I don't feel as scared about water anymore."

"Perhaps you've gotten used to it being down here." I said.

"Or maybe it's something to do with that Emerald. It probably contains the element of water inside it." Said Klim.

Kit Kat laughed.

"Nice. When I catch up with my alternate selves I can soak them." He said.

"Kit Kat, the Emeralds are staying here when we leave." Said Klim, "If we take them with us who knows what will happen to the balance of this world. What would the Master Emerald do with out the Chaos Emeralds to control?"

I nodded.

"Yes I agree Klim. I just hope Sonic and Tails can guard them when we leave."

"Don't worry." Said Klim, "We'll be sure to give Eggman a good pounding before we go. We'll teach him not to mess with the power of the Chaos Emerald."

"Yeah!" said Kit Kat.

I just smiled.

"Ok then. Let's go." I said.

The mermaids showed us back to the point where we had entered their realm and we used the transporter to get back to the island. Crossing the lava bridge again I looked at the map and then up at the horizon. To the north of Rage Mountain was a set of jagged peaks covered in snow. The Frosty Mountains were our next stop.


	8. First Encounters

Chapter 8 – First Encounter

The sun was high in the sky as it shone down on me. My eyes closed slightly as I remembered days like this back home, lying in the garden under the British sun with not a breath of wind stirring the trees. Just then a call brought me back to reality.

"Yo Lynx, how much further is there to go?" called Klim.

I blinked and looked back at him. Yet again both Kit Kat and Klim were trailing behind. I rolled my eyes, sometimes I wondered if they wanted to go back. I looked at the map again.

"We're about half way." I called back.

"I could really use a soda right now." continued Klim, "We haven't had anything to drink since Aqua Island."

"Maybe this Emerald could do something." said Kit Kat taking out the recently recovered blue Emerald.

I stopped and turned round. Come to think of it my mouth was a bit dry.

"Alright then, if you think it can give it a go. I'm a bit thirsty myself." I said.

Kit Kat gave us both a broad grin and clutched the Emerald tighter. He closed his eyes and almost instantly the Emerald glowed brightly and emitted a beam of energy. It struck the ground next to Kit Kat but didn't do anything else.

"Um….is that supposed to happen?" asked Klim.

"How should I know? Give me a moment, I'm gonna up the energy." replied Kit Kat.

Just then the beam intensified and formed up. The image of a blue cat appeared. I blinked, _was I seeing double here?_

"Kat….hey Kat! You might wanna take a look at what you're doing." I said slowly as I edged away slightly.

Out of the corner of my eye I could see Klim doing the same. Kit Kat stopped and looked at the figure beside him.

"Wha? What….Who are you?" he asked totally shocked and puzzled.

"Thank you for releasing me." said the blue cat doing a small bow, "I am Chaos Kat."

"Chaos Kat…?" I said raising an eyebrow.

"Yes. I have been trapped in that Emerald for as far back as I can remember." replied the blue cat.

I studied the cat carefully. I had seen something like this before, but where. Suddenly it clicked. The cat looked like it was made of the same type of material as Chaos.

"But how did I release you?" asked Kit Kat.

The other cat had no time to reply as a voice boomed behind us.

"AH HA! I've finally found you, you irritating little menaces."

The voice was familiar, too familiar. I spun on the spot as did Klim.

"What the…? ROBOTNIK!" cried Klim.

I looked up slightly. Hovering a few meters away was a large craft. It had to be at least twice as big as the craft he had had when I first met him after arriving here. It had a large cannon mounted on either side and its belly was lined with twin laser batteries. I clenched my fists.

"I've been itching for this ever since you captured me, come get some BUTTNIK!" I yelled.

I could hear Kit Kat and Chaos Kat exchange a few word but my attention was concentrated solely on Robotnik's craft.

"It's strange you know." said Robotnik, "I have never met you or heard of you before but you have caused as much trouble to me as Sonic and Tails. Just who are you?"

I was about to speak but Klim beat me to the punch.

"It's none of your stinking business, who we are and where we are from. But if you haven't already guessed we are not from around here. We would have put a stop to you by now if we were." shouted Klim drawing his spear.

"Really?" said Robotnik unimpressed, "Well I still say you're all talk. So if you will let's get down to business. Hand over the Chaos Emeralds or else."

"Or else what huh?!" I yelled.

"Or else I'll take them from you by force." replied Robotnik as the two main cannons aimed at Klim.

"NO WAY!" came a call from behind us, "Chaos Kat attack!"

I barely had time to react as the watery form of Chaos Kat shot past me. I blinked. Its arms had transformed into giant hammers and it took a swipe at Robotnik's craft. The strike landed hard and accurately on one of the main cannons and smashed it clear off the craft. I didn't wait any longer. _This was it, us and him…..ME AND HIM! I sprung forwards with a scream of "KIYA!". I noticed the other main cannon firing but paid it no attention, it wasn't aimed at me. The laser batteries were though._

"KIYA!" I cried again as I drew my sword.

As I did time seemed to slow again. It continued to slow. I rose my sword above my head and brought it down. The strike seemed to take an eternity to hit. I saw the laser gun charging, a bright point of energy forming on its tip. It built, built and…..SMASH! My strike landed and cleaved the laser gun clean in half. I sprung back as the gun exploded and took a quick glance around. Everyone was still standing, good. I noticed that Klim had just taken out the other main cannon and smiled.

Just then the second laser gun fired at me and almost took head off. I ducked just as the shot passed me, char grilling the end of one of the flick of hair on my head. _Lucky I don't have nerves there, I thought to myself. A sprung forwards again and swung my sword out across my body. As I did a wave of energy formed in front of it and shot off the blade. The energy wave struck the second turret and virtually blew it apart._

"AAAAH!" growled Robotnik, "Enough of this."

Just then the craft shot straight up into the air. As it climbed a streak of red fire shot upwards and blew the laser gun I had attacked before apart.

"Yeah right." said Kit Kat, "What ya gonna do now eh?"

I looked over to see him spinning the red Chaos Emerald on his finger. So that's where the fire had come from.

"This!" cried Robotnik as two large missile launchers folded out of the sides of the ship, "Now you will die."

_Yeah right Buttnik, I thought to myself, __I might not have been able to fly last time but now I can!_

As missiles started to pour from the launcher I leapt into the air. Spinning my tails, I quickly gained altitude and a few seconds later landed on top of the starboard missile launcher. I raised my sword and pointed it downwards, holding it with both hands. Just then the craft shook slightly as I saw Klim's spear strike the other launcher like a javelin. It was only a split second before it exploded and sent the spear spiraling back down to Klim. I looked down at the remaining launcher, smiled and jammed my sword down hard. It pierced the top of the launcher and I gave the blade a twist. That must have done it. There was a small whine and I leaped of it backwards as the launcher exploded. Robotnik screamed.

"That does it, you're history!" he cried as the craft dropped from the sky back to ground level. A large hole appeared on the front of the craft and I saw Klim racing at it in a blind fury. A sudden thought struck me. This had also been done before. My mind raced back to a time when I had been playing Sonic and Knuckles……the final boss…..it's main attack! _OH NO! I was about to scream at Klim but it was too late. The front of the craft erupted in a giant laser beam. I dived like a madman towards the craft. Klim didn't even see it coming and was hit full force by the laser. I heard him scream. It was a chilling sound, like a piercing wail more than anything. As I dived I could feel time slow again and another thought hit me. __The Emerald! The green Chaos Emerald was in my hand quicker than Sonic to a chilli dog stand. I felt its energy surge throught. __No! Not me him! I cried in my head. As if you answer my thought, I felt the Emeralds power fade away and saw Klim encased in a deep green glow. He jumped to his feet and glanced around as I landed._

"Thanks!" he shouted to me.

"Don't sweat it, let's just finish this guy." I replied.

Just then a blast of fire shot between us and hit the craft. Kit Kat was definitely enjoying himself. I nodded at Klim and we both spun and charged at the craft. I rose my sword just as Klim brandished his spear. Both of our attacks hit Robotnik's main cannon and it started to fizzle uncontrollably.

"AH! NO! My last weapon is offline!" wailed Robotnik.

"Way past! We did it!" cried Klim.

"Not yet! I'll…." started Robotnik before a final blast of fire struck the cockpit of the ship.

If he could see before he couldn't now. The glass was severally cracked and scorched black.

"You'll what?" asked Kit Kat as he walked over to myself and Klim.

"Just you wait! I'll get my revenge! You'll wish you'd never been born!" answered Robotnik as thew craft slowly and jerkily rose into the sky.

I watched with a smirk as it flew off, small explosion being emitted from its hull. I turned to the others with a sigh.

"That was good." I said sheathing my sword.

"Sure was." replied Klim.

"So where were we?" I asked.

"Oh yeah." said Kit Kat turning to Chaos Kat, "So Chaos Kat, how….."


	9. Cold Realization

Chapter 9 – Cold Realization

There is one thing that virtually everyone who knows me knows. That is my total hate of being cold. I hate standing around in a chilly wind, I hate snow for the most part and ice drives me crazy. Why was it then that I was currently walking through a snow and ice filled landscape and actually liking it?! If I hadn't had something more important on my mind I would have considered getting my head seen too.

"Hey Links wait up!" came Klim's voice over the whistle of the wind.

I turned slowly to see Kit Kat and Klim running as best they could towards me through the snow. Kit Kat seemed to be coping ok with the snow but Klim looked like an ice sculpture. They finally reached me.

"What's with the speed Lynx?" asked Klim as we started off again.

"You gotta keep moving in cold climates. You stay warm that way. Everyone knows that." I answered.

Klim seemed to think for a moment before replying.

"But why so fast?" he insisted.

I had to think about this before answering. When I did it was a simple answer.

"I dunno, I just feel like it." I said looking at him, "Why'd you like going to slow?"

Klim seemed to stop and think for a moment.

"Ok then I guess we better get going." he said.

Just then something caught my attention. I threw out my arm and stopped Klim.

"One sec Klim. Take a look up there." I said.

Klim looked up and so did I. High above us at the top of the mountain a large sheet of snow sat. I eyed it carefully.

"That's an avalanche waiting to happen." said Klim softly.

"Agreed. We'll have to be quiet for a while. Guess we'll have to go slow after all." I said.

"YO GUYS!" WAIT UP!" cried Kit Kat from behind us.

My eyes went wide as Klim spun on the spot.

"Shhhhh!" he hissed at Kat as he pointed upwards.

"What?" asked Kat.

A dull rumbling from above made my heart sink. It was too late. It had already started. Klim took of towards Kat before I could do anything. There was no time left though. I spun my tails and in a massive blast of snow shot into the sky. My tails providing so much lift it actually surprised me. Ever since I had come into the mountains I had felt an odd sensation and for some reason, even though the wind was incredibly strong, I was able to keep a steady hover. I looked down at the ground below. The avalanche had already washed over the area we had been standing in and had continued on down the mountain. He heart filled with dread.

"Klim? Kat?" I said to myself slowly.

_Could they be….NO! I opened my eyes wide and scanned the snow blown landscape, my ears tuned for any sounds. I stayed like this for several seconds before something caught my eye. Away to the side of the mountain I could see a small speck of red. It stuck out like a lighthouse and next to it was another partially red figure. I blinked and looked again. The specs were still there! I dove from the sky, becoming a white comet as I flung my tails behind me to increase my downward speed. As I neared the ground I spun my tails again, gained enough lift and hovered forwards. Even through the blizzard I could tell I had been right._

"HEY!" I called loudly.

Klim and Kat both turned round and I breathed a sigh of relief.

"Geez am I glad you're ok. For a moment there I thought…how did you avoid that avalanche? Where did that speed come from?"

"I guess I didn't know I had it in me." shrugged Klim.

"Now I'm even colder." shivered Kat.

I took another breath and a more pressing matter came to mind. I looked up at the peak and then back at Klim and Kat.

"Come on, let's go." I said.

"Right." said Klim as we all set off into the mountain again.

It must have been a few hours later when I finally realized time again. A blizzard had started up and snow and ice whistled around us. Strange thing was that I actually felt warmer the colder it got. I looked up at the third peak we were aiming for.

"Yo Lynx, is this the one?" called Klim.

"Yeah I think so." I said glancing over my shoulder.

A faint red glow surrounded Kit Kat as he used his red emerald to warm himself up and Klim had wrapped his arms around himself. They both looked freezing, even Kit Kat.

"Lynx?" said Klim, "How about a break?"

I looked at Klim more closely. He was certainly bearing up the worst. His red colour had dimmed slightly and his teeth chattered around frantically. As much as I feared for him we had to keep going.

"No, we can't stop. We have to keep going." I said.

"Wait a sec Lynx." said Kit Kat as he strode forwards pointing, "What about that cave. I can build a fire in there and we can rest up for a while."

"Sounds good to me." said Klim as he tore off towards the cave.

I looked at Kat and followed Klim into the cave. It wasn't soon afterwards that Klim and Kat were huddles around a fire in the middle of the cave. I shot a glance at them and walked over to the caves entrance. I stood in the entrance my nine tails fanned out behind me. The feeling in my mind seemed to grow now that I was still. A strong sense of understanding and belonging. I was weird at best. My expression made me look like I was examining something. My head kept flicking to different angles.

"Lynx? Something up?" said Klim behind me.

I glanced over my shoulder to see Klim had got up and walked over to me. I turned back to the outside.

"Oh it's just…..I dunno….it's like I belong here." I said with a shrug.

The blizzard was fading now and the sun has come out from the clouds. The snow covered landscape looked dazzling in the light. A small smile settled on my face as my eyes closed slightly. I took a deep sighing breath.

"It's beautiful." said Klim slowly.

Just then a loud roar split the air followed by Kit Kats scream as he tore past us and out of the cave. I stared at him and ran after him.

"What is it? What's in ther?" asked Klim.

"The….the….the…" spluttered Kat.

"Come on Kat. Spit it out!" I said.

Something had him totally spooked.

"The abominable snowman!" he shouted.

"Yeti's?" said Klim turning round.

There was a roar and a rumble and a huge white creature comes storming out of the cave. It was huge, at least 20 feet tall.

"More like a giant." said Klim taking out his spear.

"Huh!" I said as I did a small spin and drew my sword, "He looks more mouse than monster. Come on."

I spun my tails creating a small gust of snow and charged at the yeti. Gaining lift, I shot straight up and executed a cleanly aimed strike at the monsters chest. To my surprise the attack did absolutely nothing. The mark on the creature's chest was barely noticeable. The yeti took at a swing at my but I managed to dodge it. Klim had charged forwards and jammed his spear into the yeti's heel. His attack also did nothing. Before the yeti could react a large fireball streaked forwards and hit the yeti's leg. It howled in pain and stumbled back.

"FIRE!" cried Klim, "Of course. Fire is its weakness. Kat, think you can channel that fire into my spear?"

Kat didn't answer. Instead another beam shot from his emerald and struck Klim's spear. It glowed red and Klim dived forwards. His attack cut right into the yeti's leg making it howl again. The yeti swung forwards but Klim's new found speed allowed him to avoid the strike easily.

"Nice one Klim." I yelled getting caught up in things, "Kat, a little fire here please."

"Coming right up." shouted Kat in response as another beam shot from the emerald.

The beam streaked towards me and I held out my sword. I suddenly noticed that my sword was glowing blue again like it had when Klim had used it to break the lock of my cell in Robotnik's base. As the fire got within a few feet of me time slowed down again. The beam crept forwards and got within a few inches of my blade. As it did the blue glow intensified. The beam hit the glow and stopped. Suddenly time returned to normal as the red beam dispersed in a million directions at once. I was stunned. _What was going on? I had little time to work it out though as the yeti's next attacked connected perfectly with me. I was flung back and hit the snow. I became aware of an intense pain in my right leg. I looked down and saw why. During the strike my sword, unsheathed and loose in my hand, had been thrust into my leg. It stuck right through my leg and out the other side. I quickly reached over and pulled it out. A soundless scream escaped from my mouth. Blood dripped onto the snow around me. The pain I was feeling was intense but I had had worst. That time before the Desert of Doom when that strange purple blob had attacked and my tails had been severely hit. If it hadn't been for……__MY EMERALD! In a second the green emerald was in my hand. I concentrated on it and there was a flash. My leg didn't hurt anymore. I looked down to see the wound was healed but my blood still covered the snow and my blade. I stood up quickly and faced the battle._

"This thing is a god send." I said to myself.

"NOW KAT!" cried Klim.

I looked up to see Klim standing on the yeti's head. A beam of fire hit his spear and he drove it into the yeti's head. It groaned and started to collapse. Klim jumped off as the yeti fell. I could see what was going to happen. Klim was going to land moments before the yeti landed. He wouldn't have time to dodge. I spun my tails again and took off, making up the ground between me and Klim quickly. I grabbed him and pulled him to one side as the yeti hit the snow behind us.

"Thanks bud." said Klim as I lowered him to the ground.

"No problem." I replied looking at Kat. "That was impressive Kat. I didn't really think you had it in you."

"It was nothing really." replied Kat.

"Well you got strength there, you too Klim. I get the feeling you've got a few more adventure in front of you." I said with a slow nod.

"And you?" asked Klim.

I gave a small chuckle and turned away. I looked out over the mountain and sighed.

"Most certainly….if it's possible. But next time I'd like to be able to choose when I come here so I can prepare." I replied.

I heard Klim laugh behind me. Just then the ground shook and began to rise. I almost fell over at the sudden movement.

"Woah! What the?" cried Kat.

We rose for some time. As we did I felt the feeling in my head growing stronger. It was near I could feel it. The rising stopped and we all looked around.

"LOOK!" cried Klim, "It's the shrine."

I spun on the spot. I charged past Klim and into the shrine. On a pedicle at the far end of the room sat a glowing aqua coloured gem. Slowly I reached my hands out to it. My breathing slowed down to virtually nothing as my fingers brushed against the emerald. It was cold to the touch but strangely enough it filled me with an odd warm feeling. I carefully grasped the emerald and lifted it from the pedicle. My sword by my side started to hum and for a moment it glowed a faint blue colour. I blinked and slowly turned and left the shrine. I continued to stare at it as I walked out.

"There's something different about this one." I said slowly.

"Really? Lemme see." said Klim as he grabbed the emerald from my hands, "I don't feel anything funny."

He threw the emerald back at me and I caught it quickly. I looked at the emerald again and blinked.

"Well it's probably nothing." I said not really believing it myself.

There WAS something different about this emerald. Maybe the others couldn't sense it but I could. I started to walk away with Klim.

"Hey wait up guys! Don't leave me." yelled Kat as he tore after us, "I'm afraid of heights."

_Is there anything you're not afraid of? I shook me head and continued on. At my side my sword hummed and glowed again._


	10. Seeing Double

Chapter 10 – Seeing Double

It was as if the emerald was calling out to me. I kept blinking uncontrollably and a feeling of belonging flowed through me. I blinked again and snapped out of my trance. Time really must have passed as we were now far from the last shrine. I hadn't noticed time going by one little bit. I took out the map I still held and took a brief glance at it.

"This will be our last easy emerald." I said to no-one in particular, "The final one is held by Robotnik still."

"Well maybe not." replied Klim appearing at my side, "Sonic and Tails have probably secured it by now."

"We don't know for sure." said Kit Kat.

"True but the quicker we get this emerald the quicker we can get back and find out." replied Klim.

I nodded. I had forgotten about those guys.

"Right Klim. Well the next emerald is on a floating palace on the next mountain." I replied burring my nose in the map again.

"Float?! Did you just say floating palace?" asked Kat stopping dead.

"Have a look for yourself." I said turning to show him the map.

Kat took a look at the map as I took a look at him. He looked like he was about to be sick.

"How can a palace float?" said Klim in a puzzling tone.

"Dunno. Maybe the emerald keeps it up like the Master Emerald and Angel Island?" I replied.

"Perfect!" said Kat, "So once we get it we'll have to haul tail before it falls!"

"It might not be. It's just an idea. Maybe the chaos emerald has nothing to do with it." I said.

Kat was still looking a bit ill as he replied.

"Well whatever the reason, I really don't like heights."

"Neither do I. But then sometimes you got to ignore it." I said.

Kat still didn't look convinced.

"Listen guys. I dunno why but I have a really bad feeling about Sonic and Tails. Maybe I should go check on them?"

"You sure Kat? We will really need your help again." I asked.

I noticed Klim was nodding in agreement and looking at Klim equally worried.

"Yeah I'm sure. I'll meet you guys back at Sonic's house." replied Kat.

"Ok then Kat. But if you're going take this." I said holding out the map.

"I don't need that. Us cats have a great sense of direction." said Kat pushing the map back at me.

"Then you got lost in the jungle on purpose then?" laughed Klim.

"Um…" replied Kat as he took the map from me and turned away, "Later guys."

"Cya Kat." I said with a small saluting like wave.

"Bye." cried Klim.

Kat waved and ran off away from us. I looked after Kat as he soon disappeared.

"That was unexpected to say the least." said Klim stepping up beside me, "But let's go Lynx."

"You got it. Next stop the palace." I said turning to face him.

The next few hours dragged on and the wind started to pick up. We were now fairly near the top of the mountain we were aiming at. My nine tails wafted around behind me and Klim had been forced to walk in front of me so he could actually see. I was annoyed with the wind. Further down the mountain I had tried to fly but even there the wind had been so strong I had lost control and flown straight into the ground. We were now forced to climb the mountain on foot and we had to hang on with our hands to avoid being blown off too. It was insufferable. Just then Klim spoke.

"WOW! Lynx come and look at this!" he cried.

I scrambled up the last part of the mountain and stood up next to him. Only one word fitted what I saw.

"Amazing!"

Just above the top of the mountain floated a huge palace with towers and battlements. Odd palace I thought to myself.

"Question is….how'd we get up there?" I said.

"Looky there Lynx." said Klim.

I looked at where he was pointing. A small fluffy white cloud was floating all on its own a few feet above the mountaintop. I watched Klim walk over to it and gentle place his foot on it. To both our surprise the cloud actually held Klim's weight. He put both his feet on it and it still held. I cautiously put my feet on it and it still held. I was about to speak when a second cloud appeared out of thin air a little above and ahead of us. Now I know what this place reminded me of. It was a similar style to the Sky Sanctuary level on Sonic and Knuckles.

"I can see where this is going." I said stepping onto the next cloud.

"Yep." replied Klim as he jumped up next to me and another cloud appeared.

"It's almost too easy." I joked as I jumped to the next cloud.

"Don't say that!" yelled Klim.

As Klim spoke a shrill laugh split the air. I was alert in a second but it would take a deaf person to miss the sound of the something exploding. I looked back to see that the first cloud was gone. My face fell in horror.

"RUN!" cried Klim as he jumped onto my cloud.

I spun and jumped to the next cloud as the second one exploded. The clouds started to appear in a zigzag like pattern in front of us. I spun my tails and managed to jump two at once. Klim was leaping off each one in turn gaining more speed as he did. The explosion started to gain on us but the palace was now almost in reach. Just a little further, just a little….

The cloud I was on exploded sending me into the air. This was it. I couldn't fly up here. I was road kill for sure. I was…..THUD! I landed with a heavy crunch on a solid stone floor. I looked up to see that I was actually in the castle. I wasn't road kill! I slowly got to my feet and looked over at Klim who was lying on the floor a meter away.

"Man that was close." I said dusting myself off.

"Too right." replied Klim getting up.

I took a moment to look around. We were in a huge corridor. Large picture and suits of armor lined the walls. It looked like something out of King Arthur.

"Yo Lynx, you think someone is living here?" said Klim pointing off to one side.

I looked at where he was pointing. In a room just off the corridor, a fire was burning in a fireplace.

"Possibly. Let's take a look round." I said.

"Right."

We walked into the room with the fire and, as Klim went to warm up, I went to look around the room. Lines of book cases lined the walls.

"Looks like some sort of library." I said.

"Well that's a good thing." replied Klim.

"How come?"

"Well have you ever heard of a monster that reads?"

I laughed and turned away. Klim was right. I started to look at the books on the shelf. I was surprised at the titles. A lot of them seemed to be just my style even though I don't really read a lot.

"Yo Lynx. I'm ready." called Klim.

I turned and walked back to the fire.

"Find anything interesting?" asked Klim.

"Not really, but some of those books look really good. Just my sort of thing." I replied.

"Well maybe the guy whop lives here will be nice and let you borrow some. Hell this could be our only easy emerald."

I furrowed my brow at Klim. Sometimes I wondered about him.

"Klim, that laugh we heard wasn't friendly sounding." I said.

Klim looked like he regretted opening his mouth.

"Ok then let's go." he said.

We walked back to the corridor and took a flight of stairs up to the second floor. A door stood ajar and we walked towards it. I was a bit uneasy. It was too quiet, far too quiet. As we entered the room we stopped. In the middle of the room sat a small pillar and on it…

"Klim look. Isn't that it?" I said.

"It's gotta be. I'll get it." replied Klim springing forwards.

"Klim wait!"

It was too late though. As Klim neared the pillar a large metal cage dropped from the ceiling and trapped him. I looked from the cage to the pillar to see the purple light on the top of it fade ands disappear.

"I knew you were after the Chaos Emerald." came a cold voice from the darkness at the other side of the room.

"Who are you?!" I cried spinning round.

"So you weren't stupid enough to fall for it eh. No matter, I would enjoy a fight." said the voice.

This was too weird. That voice! I knew it but it was impossible. He was in a cage next to me!

"Show yourself!" I cried drawing my sword.

"With pleasure." came a reply as a red hedgehog with white patches came into view from a dark corner.

"KLIM?!" I cried flicking between Klim and the new arrival.

"Klim? My name is Klime idiot." spoke the hedgehog.

"How?!" I cried.

"Yo Lynx. Remember Chaos Kat? He was this world version of Kat, well maybe this is this world version of me." said Klim.

"Not very friendly." I replied.

"Friendly? You walk in like you own the place and then try to take our Chaos Emerald. What do you expect?" replied Klime as he drew two daggers from his belt, "You expect me to greet you with open arms? I don't think so. Prepare to die you feeble robots."

"Robots!" shouted Klim, "That's the biggest insult I've ever had!"

"And what else would you be. Metal Sonic, Metal Knuckles….Robotnik likes making metal duplicates doesn't he. Too bad they are always so weak."

I saw Klime's daggers glow as he charged at me. He was quick! Too quick. His two daggers aimed for different points. I could only block one of them. My sword went upwards knocking the head shot out of the way but I was too slow to stop the second hitting my arm. It was just like back at the yeti fight when my sword had gone through my leg. I cried out as Klime jumped backwards. As Klime landed he saw the blood dripping from my arm.

"Blood?" he said totally astonished.

"Yes blood you total clot!" I growled at him as I placed my free hand on the cut.

"You must be clones! He must have got some of my DNA last time I went to his base. I know you are working for Robotnik, you can't fool me." replied Klime.

"You're so ignorant!" I growled.

I stood straight up and spread out my tails. My position must have looked fairly threatening as I raised my sword. But instead of striking I spun. My blade made a clean contact with the bars of Klim's cage. It had no problem as it sliced straight through them allowing Klim to craw out.

"ARG! You are starting to get to me now! Fine I'll take you both on!" growled Klime.

"No need to do it alone." said a new voice.

I froze solid. No! It couldn't be! That new voice, it was…..

"Yo Jynx!" cried Klime, "Glad you made it. Now let's take these guys down!"

"You got it." said the voice.

I spun at the voice to see a pale grey nine tailed fox entering the room. I almost fell over….it was ME! Jynx raised his hands.

"And now allies of Robotnik, you will die!" he said.

Before I could do anything Jynx had launched a volley of huge fireball at me and Klim. As they struck it was almost like my fur was melting. I let out a muted cry as my sword started to glow bright blue colour. It was just like on the mountains earlier. Fire! I collapsed to the floor with a thud. An eternity seemed to pass by as time slowed down to a virtual stop. I reached for my green emerald and seconds later there was a large green flash. I was on my feet in a second with my sword drawn and glowing.

"Now you're gonna get it!" I cried as I shot at Jynx.

"Oh no you don't!" came a cry as Klime shot in and blocked my downwards strike.

Suddenly a huge bolt of lightning shot across the room striking Klime. He fell to the floor with a scream as I looked over to see Klim holding his yellow emerald.

"Klime!" screamed Jynx as he threw out his arms.

A pale greeny blue light covered Klime's body and seconds later Klime jumped to his feet.

"Thanks Jynx." cried Klime.

I saw Jynx's eyes fix on Klim.

"You like lightning eh? Well have some of this!" he screamed in rage.

A huge lightning bolt flew from his hands and struck the ground that Klim had just vacated.

"This is not gonna be easy." he cried at me as he stood up.

"You think I ain't figured that out already?!" I screamed back as Klime came in with an attack.

As I was dealing with Klime a loud scream split the air. I shot a quick glance Jynx to see Klim's spear sticking up through the ground right next to him. By the look of things it had hit him in the leg. Jynx collapsed to the floor and Klime stopped. He shot a glance at Klim.

"I'll get you for that faker! Speed Slice!" he cried.

Klime shot across the room towards Klim. There was nothing I could do but watch. Klime almost seemed to disappear he was moving so fast. Seconds later he was stood over Klim looking pleased. I could see two deep wounds on Klim's chest and instantly took out my emerald.

"Hold on Klim!" I shouted as the emerald flashed.

A green light surrounded Klim and seconds later he was on his feet healed. I went to put the emerald away but I couldn't. Something was keeping the emerald active.

"What the….? I can't stop it! What's going on?!" I cried.

"I'm draining its energy. That's why." came Jynx voice.

I spun to see Jynx standing up a green aura around him. He looked at me.

"I knew you'd try that again so all I had to do was wait." he said.

"Time to finish them Jynx!" cried Klime.

"Yes." replied Jynx.

Suddenly a huge explosion ripped the ground where I was standing. My sword flew from my hand and time slowed right down again. The explosion hit me full force in the chest and I flew backwards as time returned to normal. As I hit the wall everything went black…


	11. The Calling

Chapter 11 – The Calling

I fell. Distance seemed to float away as it seemed to continue for ever. An endless void. Nothing but black. My eyes slowly started to grow accustom to the darkness and slowly shapes started to form. Strange twisted shapes of familiar things. My room at university, my family, my friends and others. Suddenly one image caught my eye and I locked my vision on it. As I seemed to fall past it, it shimmered and became clearer. The image of a small crystal like object. Colour started to fill the area as the crystal took on an icy blue colour….cyan! The cyan Chaos Emerald! The gem expanded and soon filled my vision but continued to grow. As I continued to watch I lost track of the edges and slowly started to feel colder. The cold continued to grow and soon I couldn't feel my legs and arms. Still it continued and I started to feel light headed. A few moments later I felt my consciousness falling away when suddenly a bright flame leaped into my mind. The flame started to burn brightly, bringing me back to my senses. My arms and legs started to warm at the flame. I knew this feeling but how? It had never happened before. Just then a thought touched my mind. But it wasn't mine…

"Hello." it said.

"W…what?" I replied slightly worried.

"You seem distressed. I am sorry. I didn't mean to upset you."

"No no! It's ok." I replied in a panicky voice.

Why was I panicking? What was so important about this voice?

"Who are you?" I asked.

"Don't you know yourself?" replied the thought.

I stopped for a moment. I did know what this voice was.

"The emerald." I replied.

"Yes. I am the essence of the cyan emerald. I always hoped that this day would come. All of my brother also hope for this day but I am the first. I know that I am the first."

"The first what?"

"The first to truly find a home."

"A home?"

"Yes, with you."

"What do you mean with me?"

"Did you not sense I was different when you picked me up? You have touched my brothers too and none of them felt different. You are my guardian."

"Your guardian?"

It all made sense. From the moment I had picked up the cyan emerald I had felt something different. A feeling of belonging and understanding.

"I am your guardian. I can feel it. But how?" I asked.

"All will become clear in time. Just trust in yourself and your feelings. They will never lead you astray. And now that I am here….wait."

"What is it?"

"There is someone else here. Someone is nearby. They are…..NO! Don't do it!"

"What is it?!"

"They are taking me away! I don't want to leave! I want to stay with you! Make them stop!"

"I'll stop them!"

"Help me!"

I tried to move but found I couldn't. The flame in my mind started to fade away as did the vision of the emerald around me. Soon it was no bigger than it was and the darkness had returned. All I could do was watch as the emerald disappeared from view.

"NO!" I cried.

The blackness became so dark I lost sight of even myself. Suddenly I hit something hard and cold.

I slowly opened my eyes to find myself lying on a stone floor. My face hurt from the impact with the ground as I slowly turned my eyes to look around. My last vision was seeing Klime locking a metal barred door and walking away with my sword as Jynx examined a cyan coloured gem in his hand.

"No." I said weakly before I passed out again.

I woke a little while later with a throbbing headache. I spent a few minutes lying on the floor sobbing quietly to myself. Slowly I propped myself up on my hands and looked around through my tear soaked eyes. I was locked in some sort of dungeon cell. I continued to look round and saw Klim lying on the floor a few feet away. Looks like he didn't win either I thought to myself. I then looked at myself. There wasn't a single battle scar on me. I drew myself up to my knees and leaned back against a wall with my legs crossed. I sat and waited for what seemed like an eternity. Thoughts of the emerald kept coming back to me and I felt helpless and naked without my sword. Suddenly Klim gave a groan. I glanced over but didn't get up.

"Wha? Where am I?" groaned Klim.

"A dungeon cell." I replied mournfully.

Klim slowly turned to look at me. He smiled.

"Well at least you're ok. I thought you might have died in that explosion." he said.

"I was worried about you too when I woke up but by the look of things that Jynx chappy healed us." I said, "This still isn't a good situation. I'm putting my money on interrogation here."

"Yeah and if they listen like they did earlier we really are in trouble."

"Exactly."

I watched as Klim got up and walked over to the bars.

"I think I can break these." he said.

"I bet you could but what would you do afterwards? They've taken our weapons and emeralds." I said slowly hanging my head in sorrow.

I hear Klim groan as he hit the bars.

"Guess we're stuck then." he said.

"Sure looks like it." I replied still hanging my head.

"Wonder how long this is going to last."

"Could be hours."

"Sure hope Kat's ok."

"Me too."

Time continued to drag by. For me it seemed longer. Time seemed to slow down to a snails pace. All my thoughts dwelled on the cyan emerald and I found myself not wanting to do anything. The occasional 'yeah' or 'uh huh' slipped out in reply to a few of Klim's questions and statements but other than that the cell was deadly silent. Suddenly a loud yell split the air.

"Jynx! I can't believe what you just said!"

Slowly I raised my head at the noise and pricked up my ears.

"Well maybe you should have told me what they had said to you BEFORE you said to attack them! It all makes sense to me!"

I looked over at Klim who was pressed against the bars.

"You hear that Lynx?" he said.

"Yeah." I replied with no emotion, "Sounds like Jynx is pissed at Klime and Klime is equally ticked."

A few moments later I heard footsteps approaching our cell. Klim backed away from the bars as Jynx and Klime came into view.

"Jynx stop!" cried Klime, "You can't just let them go! They…"

"Shut up!" growled Jynx, "They don't looks like any allies of Robotnik."

"Of course not! They look like US! Almost exactly like us!" replied Klime putting himself between Jynx and the cell.

"Yeah I noticed. Almost! If Robotnik had made clones don't you think they would have been just like us? EXACTLY like us?"

"Maybe he messed up!"

"Unlikely at best. Come on Klime! Robotnik has been around as far back as I can remember and during that time he has created so many different things it is unbelievable. He rarely ever fails in perfection."

"But…"

"No buts Klime. I'm letting them out and that the end of it."

Jynx took a step forward and threw Klime out of the way. Seconds later the lock exploded on its own and Jynx gave the door a kick sending it crashing to the floor.

"Come on, out!" ordered Jynx, "We need to talk."

As I got to my feet slowly I could see that Klime was still totally ticked off. He shot a glance at us and sneered.

"I know you work for Robotnik, you can't fool me." he said and walked off after Jynx.

I walked out of the cell and waited for Klim.

"Talk about unexpected." said Klim as he stopped next ot me.

"Uh huh!" I agreed with a nod.

"So we gonna stay here and rot or follow them?" asked Klim.

"Let's go." I said motioning with my head, "And let's not try to provoke then."

We followed a passage and climbed a flight of stairs before we made it to a large room with a long table in it. A fire burned in a corner and a thick carpet lined the floor. I saw Jynx and Klime still arguing next to the table but they soon shut up as we walked over and sat down at the table.

"Ok first things first. What are your names?" asked Jynx.

"Klim's the name." said Klim.

"And I'm Lynx." I replied.

"Fakers…" muttered Klime as he rolled his eyes.

"Ok and now to the actual business." said Jynx taking out an old book.

It was rather tatty looking but was still in good condition for its apparent age. Jynx started to flick through it.

"What you gonna do Jynx? A nice torture spell perhaps?" asked Klime.

"Klime, what's with all the vicious behaviors recently? Stop it." said Jynx looking over at him slightly, "Ok here it is."

I suddenly started feeling a bit nervous. I was just glad that it wasn't Klime in charge of the book. That torture spell didn't sound like a picnic.

"What you going to do?" I asked slowly.

"Just a simple truth spell. Don't worry it won't hurt or have any lasting effects." replied Jynx as balls of light formed in each of his palms.

He threw one at Klim and one at me. We both stood there as the orb hit us. Even if I had wanted to dodge I just didn't feel up to it. I just didn't feel whole without my sword and the…

"Ok now then." said Jynx, "First off. Are you allies of Robotnik?"

"Nope." I said as I saw Klim shaking his head.

"LIES!" cried Klime, "You're spell isn't working Jynx."

"Klime shut up! Don't make me put a silence spell on you again. Your insistent screaming is giving me a head ache!"

Another two orbs flew at us and Jynx asked his question again and got the same reply. Klime looked like he was having a fit.

"Maybe they don't know they are working for Robotnik." he said trying to accuse us another way.

"Possibly." replied Jynx, "He could be influencing them another way."

"Then this spell is pointless. If they think they are telling the truth we still won't know."

"Then maybe if we told you the full story you would understand." I said glaring at Klime.

"Might help." said Klim.

"Very well then." said Jynx sitting down in a chair.

His hand glowed and a mug of coffee appeared in it. I blinked.

"Nice trick. You gotta show me that sometime." I said with a laugh, "Anyway…"

Soon afterwards both myself and Klim had launched into a full and detailed explanation of what had happened to us so far. The looks on Jynx's and Klime's faces were priceless at some points. It wasn't long before we were nearing the end.

"And then after we cleared that little exploding cloud trap of yours we ended up in here. You will know the rest." I finished.

Jynx leaned back in his chair and fell silent for a moment.

"Well your tail does sound convincing." he said at length, "And you didn't attack until we did."

"I can't believe you are believing this!" cried Klime totally astounded, "It's a trick."

"For this worlds version of me you aren't too bright." said Klim with a smile.

Oh god Klim! You and your big mouth!

"Shut up faker!" roared Klim drawing his daggers, "I'll cleave you in two for that!"

"Guys will you calm down please!" groaned Jynx.

"Yeah! That was a bit uncalled for Klim!" I said in support.

There was a moment silence before something I just didn't expect happened.

"Klime." said Klim, "Wanna go one on one?"

"Be my pleasure!" growled Klime, "I'll be sure to finish you off this time."

"KLIM! What are you going?!" I cried as I spun to him in distress.

"Lynx this might be the only way I can get him to believe me. It'll be okay. Besides I can take him." replied Klim.

"Yeah right." cried Klime getting ready to attack.

"STOP IT!" roared Jynx.

The very ground seemed to vibrate at his cry. Everyone including myself stopped and looked at him.

"If you are going to fight don't do it in here. You will completely destroy the place. Go to the arena down the corridor." said Jynx indicating towards an opened door.

As he did Klime shot off out of the room. Klim turned to Jynx.

"Take this." said Jynx taking hold of Klim's spear from a corner of the room and throwing it at him. "You'll need it but please don't kill him. Make him understand."

"What about my Chaos Emerald?" asked Klim catching his spear.

"No." said Jynx shaking his head. "He is not using one so neither should you. Go now, Lynx and I will stay and discuss things here."

"Very well." replied Klim walking over to the door, "Wish me luck."

I watched as Klim shot off and turned back to Jynx. Now that I was alone with my alternate self I started to feel slightly uneasy. For some reason I could feel the magical aura around him. Jynx was looking at the door.

"I hope nothing too bad happens." he said.

"To either of them." I continued.

Jynx looked at me. His gaze was piercing at best.

"Why do you care about Klime?" he asked.

"Why shouldn't I?" I replied, "It not as if he is my enemy."

"He doesn't feel the same about you."

"And what do you feel?" I asked.

"To tell you the truth I'm not sure. There is a certain believability about your tale but I am still cautious."

"Makes sense." I said walking over to a window.

The sun was now setting but because we were on top of the mountain it's light still filled all the windows. I sighed.

"What's wrong?" asked Jynx.

"I just feel so lonely." I replied.

"What about your traveling buddy?" said Jynx.

"Not that type of loneliness. It's different."

"I think I understand what you are getting at." said Jynx pulling out my sword from behind his chair.

I spun and starred at him and then the sword. It was almost calling my name. Jynx took hold of the sheath with one hand and pulled the sword out with the other. The blade started to pulse a deep blue and I felt a strong sense of revulsion. Jynx looked closely at the blade, examining the engraved carving of nine tails on it.

"I must say that this blade intrigued me when I saw it." he said, "I've never seen anything like it before. Such fine craftsmanship and interesting properties."

My breathing started to quicken. If it hadn't been for Jynx's magic ability I would have knocked him over and taken my sword back. Instead I stood and watched longingly. Jynx saw my condition.

"I see you have some sort of bond with this sword. Interesting." he said.

"Can I have it back?" I asked slowly.

"I'm afraid not. I still do not totally trust you."

"What do I have to do to convince you?"

"I'm not sure, and even if I was you would have to figure it out yourself."

"I need it back! Please!"

I was starting to get desperate now. It hadn't been so bad when I didn't know he had it. But now the pain of not having my sword was really starting to distress me.

"You could always take it." said Jynx.

"I don't want to fight you." I replied.

"Why? Afraid of losing?"

"No, I just don't want to fight you."

"Uh huh." said Jynx, "Then maybe you can explain something else to me?"

Jynx turned again and slowly drew out a cyan coloured gem. I almost screamed in agony.

"This particular Chaos Emerald was glowing very brightly when I took it from you. I want to know why." asked Jynx.

I couldn't take it. My sword and the cyan Chaos Emerald both within an arms reach. It was too much. No I wouldn't fight him, I couldn't. Just then something turned the tables. _Help me came a voice in my head. It was…_

"I'm coming emerald!" I said.

"Huh?" asked Jynx.

"I'M COMING EMERALD!" I screamed as I launched myself forwards.

Jynx mustn't have been ready and only narrowly dodged my dive. I hit the floor with a thud and spun my head. Jynx was standing there looking at me cautiously.

"So that's what this is about." he said, "Hmm."

"Give me that emerald!" I cried at him as I scrambled to my feet and dived at him again.

Jynx stepped to the side and dodged again but I wasn't deterred. I spun and dived once more. The next thing I knew I had sailed across the room and hit the wall. Jynx lowered his hand as I slowly got to my feet.

"That was only a repulsion spell. It could have been a lot worst. Now you will explain what your business is with this emerald!" he said.

"My business is between me and the emerald!" I cried, "No-one else is involved."

"So you are saying this emerald is alive? Impossible. The Chaos Emeralds are merely sources of energy."

_Help me_ came the cry again.

"It is alive! Give it to me!" I screamed.

I ran at him again and found myself face first into another wall. I got up again to see that Jynx now looked slightly angered.

"You had better stop. If you want this emerald that badly you either are working for Robotnik or have some weird fixation."

"Weird fixation?! I'll show you weird fixation!" I screamed as I charged again.

Again Jynx threw me away and I landed on the table in the middle of the room. I slid off it and landed in a heap on the floor. I can't do this I thought, he's too strong. _You can do it came an answering though__, you are my guardian._

"You're right, I am!" I cried leaping up again.

"Please stop." said Jynx, "I'll end up hurting you otherwise."

"Perhaps not." I said.

As I said that I felt a surge of energy flow through me. It was the emerald! I know it was the emerald. I shot a glance over at my sword and, to my surprise, it shot from the chair Jynx had put it on and landed in my hand. As it did the blade turned a deep cyan colour and started to humm. A small wind started to build up around me containing small fragments of ice. My fur stuck up on end as the wind continued to build around me. Jynx was so surprise that he didn't do a thing but watch in awe. The emerald in Jynx's hand started to glow brighter as the vortex of wind around me changed to a vertical alignment above me. The ice in it built gradually and soon became a swirling tunnel of white.

"Now." I said deeply, "Give…me….that….EMERALD!"

I leaped forwards at Jynx and as I did the tunnel of ice shot forwards too. It struck Jynx directly in the chest and sent him flying back against the far wall. My charge didn't stop as I dove forwards with my sword. Jynx, partially frozen to the wall had no hope of dodging and my sword went straight through his chest. His eyes went wide and he took a gasping breath as I bent over him. I took the emerald from his hand and slowly I felt myself returning to normal.

"I did it emerald." I said.

_Yes but at what cost?_ it said in response.

I looked down at Jynx. My sword was still imbedded in his chest and he was breathing in short sharp gasps. I gasped.

"No!" I cried as I collapsed next to him, "I didn't want to do this! I didn't want to fight you! WHY DID YOU MAKE ME FIGHT YOU?!"

Jynx just looked at me, a look of complete shock on his face. It sent a chill down my back. Jynx gave a few more sharp breaths and fell silent. My lower lip started to tremble as I collapsed into a heap on the floor. I started to sob loudly.

"NO!" I cried, "Why did I do this?! WHY?!"

_All is not lost, there is still a way._

"What way? I've killed him! I have killed my own self!"

_I am sorry. I feel responsible for this. I was so desperate to get back to you that I willed you on past the point where you could control yourself._

"How could you?! If I am to protect you I must do it on my own. If you help me then….THEN THIS IS GOING TO HAPPEN!" I cried through my sobs.

I sat up slowly and looked at the lifeless form of Jynx.

"If only I had my green emerald! I could have saved him!" I said.

_You still might._

"How?"

_Use me to focus on my green brother. I will try to reach him._

"Ok I will try."

I looked at the emerald and then at Jynx. I would do this! I had to! I closed my eyes and channeled my thought into the cyan emerald. As I did I felt my thoughts shifting. They spread out in every direction searching, searching for the green emerald. Just then my thought felt it, the green emerald. I focused on it and slowly felt its calming power enter my mind.

_Grip your sword _said the emerald.

I did and suddenly the blade started to glow green. I looked at the emerald to see it also glowing green. The light continued to increase and a steady humm filled the room.

_Get ready. When I say pull it out._

I nodded but continued to concentrate. I felt the emerald power steadily increasing and gritted my teeth.

_NOW!_

With a sharp tug I pulled my sword from Jynx's chest just as a bright green flash filled the room. Jynx suddenly gasped and sat up as the life flowed back into him. His eyes went wide as he looked around. He fixed on me. I knew what I had to do. I placed the emerald and my sword down on the ground next to Jynx and stood up. I took a few steps backwards and closed my eyes.

"I have no right to be that emeralds guardian anymore." I said, "Not after this. Jynx I am at your mercy. Do as you wish."

I heard Jynx slowly getting up and walking towards me. I braced myself for what might come. What actually came was unexpected. I jumped as Jynx's hand landed on my shoulder and slowly opened my eyes. Jynx stood there with a small smile on his face.

"Jynx?" I said.

"There is no need to do this to yourself." he said.

"Wha…what?"

"The emerald. It spoke to me in my head. It told me about itself and you. I think I understand what happened now. It was not your fault. And now I do trust you fully. Now pick up your emerald and sword."

Jynx's words stunned me. Slowly I bent over and picked up my sword and the emerald. Jynx had walked over to the table and when he returned he held my swords sheath in his hands. He gave it to me and I returned my sword to its home. I quickly slung it around my waist and put the cyan emerald away. Jynx smiled at me.

"You really are just like me." he said.

"I'm sorry." I replied hanging my head.

"Lynx it's ok. Honestly it is. I know now that what you said really was true and what just happened was out of your control. Just promise me something."

"Yes."

"Never do that to me again. Being dead sucks."

I let out a small chuckle which Jynx soon joined in. That did it. I burst into a fit of laughter and had to steady myself on a chair to avoid falling over. It looked like Jynx was in a similar situation. Maybe he really was like me? I had no time to ponder and the laughter stopped a second later as a call rung the air.

"Lynx?" it said as Klim stumbled through the door and collapsed…


	12. Backtrack

Chapter 12 – Backtrack

I froze to the spot as Klim stumbled though the door and fell to the ground with a thud. In my peripheral vision I could see Jynx, equally shock by the look of things, staring too. If any moment had lasted forever it was this one. The image forever engraved itself on my brain and at no point in the future did I forget it. I acted but it seemed clumsy and hurried. With one leap I landed next to Klim and crumpled to the floor next to him. I grabbed his shoulders and shook him.

"Klim? KLIM?! Wake up!"

"Lynx…I can't do anything in this state. My healing powers can't do anything for him. There's only one thing that can." said Jynx quickly joining me by Klim.

"The green emerald!" I said quickly looking at him.

I grabbed his shoulder and shook him hard.

"Where is it?! Where is the green emerald?!" I yelled at him.

"Three rooms over on the right." replied Jynx.

I was on my feet before Jynx had finished. Racing down the corridor I counted three rooms and charged the door. I almost fell over as the door gave way easily and I tumbled into the room. Sat on two of pillars were the yellow and green emeralds. Running up the green one, I picked it up and fled the room. I raced back to the room to find that Jynx had hoisted Klim onto the table top. I activated the emerald before I had even made it through the door. The room flashed green for a second before I focused its energy on Klim. His body began to glow but it wasn't enough. All the other times I had healed someone it had been immediately after they had been hurt. Who knows how long it took Klim to stagger back here. I gritted my teeth as I raced across the room towards him. The emerald glowed slightly more and the glow around Klim increased too. I tensed my body and with a small whimper forced my entire strength into the emerald. The whole room suddenly lit up in a massive flash. Klim's body flashed green and he started to stir. I relaxed slightly as I came to a rest next to him. I took a deep breath.

"That looked exerting." said Jynx slightly concerned.

"You have no idea." I replied as I looked at Klim.

He was stirring now but hadn't woken up.

"Well he looks ok now." stated Jynx.

"Yeah. He really was beaten up by…"

I stopped my eyes going wide.

"What?" asked Jynx.

"If Klim is like this, what's Klime like?" I said.

Jynx seemed to catch on as his face fell too. We looked at each other for a moment and then both ran from the room. It didn't take us long to make it to the room Klim and Klime had been fighting in. They skidded to a halt and entered the room. Klime was lying on the floor in the middle of the room. Jynx raced past me and collapsed next to him. He wasn't as badly injured at Klim but he certainly needed help. I drew the chaos emerald again and launched its energy across the room. Klime's body glowed and he stirred. Jynx gave him a shake and slowly he woke up.

"Huh?" he said as he slowly raised an arm to rub his head.

"Klime! Thank god you're alright!" cried Jynx.

I didn't hear if they said anything else as I ran from the room back to the room we had left Klim in. I ran in to find him still lying on the table, covered in blood and breathing lightly. I picked him up and raced from the room, nearly colliding with Klime and Jynx as I did.

"Lynx follow me." said Jynx as he spun to the side and ran down a corridor. Jynx took a room to the side and I followed him in. A number of beds lined the walls and Jynx motioned for to one of them. I quickly put Klim down and stood back. Jynx swept over him and started to tend a few of his wounds.

"Allow me." I said taking out the green emerald again.

Not so full of panic now I slowly fed the energy into Klim. He started to glow and his wounds slowly healed. A few moments later he stirred and moaned slightly and then finally opened his eyes.

"Gods Klim. I'm glad you're ok."  I sighed lowering the emerald, "Thought I might have been too late at one point."

"Good to have you back." said Jynx holding out his hand to help Klim up.

Klim took it and stood up. He glanced around for a moment obviously getting his bearings.

"That was a bit too brutal for my liking." he said.

"Yeah I got a bit carried away." admitted Klime stepping out from behind Jynx, "Sorry."

"Hey it's alright." smiled Klim.

I could have sworn time slowed down as I reached over, grabbed Klim by the shoulders and shook him several times.

"Alright?!" I cried, "You almost died!"

"Oh relax Lynx." replied Klim pulling himself away, "I'm not about to throw in the towel just yet."

"Well both Klim and I owe you an apology." said Jynx taking out the yellow emerald and handing it to Klim, "How about a big feast?"

"Sounds fabulous but we can't." replied Klim as we walked from the room, "Our friend Kat is still out there and I couldn't eat while he's helping Sonic. We have to go."

"Well you seem righteous enough." replied Jynx, "I think the chaos emerald will be safe with you."

I smiled as I watched Klim and Jynx walk off. Jynx certainly was like me. Thoughtful, caring and understanding.

"Yes he's a great guy." said Klime walking up beside me.

I turned to look at him. He looked slightly nervous talking to me and I understood why. If I hadn't been able to get to Klim in time I don't know what I would have done to him. That was my weak point I guess, my temper was absolutely terrible if it got out of control.

"He sure is. So like me. How'd you meet him?" I asked.

"Well I rather not talk about it. The time before I became his friend was a bit dark for me and I still have nightmares about it. I think that's why I kinda snapped at you two when you first arrived. I hate anything that could disrupt my life." he replied.

I nodded. I could understand that I guess, made perfect sense.

"Well ok then no problem." I replied.

"I thought you'd be mad." said Klime.

"Well I am a bit. But in the end it was a mistake and you are forgiven."

Klime seemed to breath a sigh of relief.

"I'm glad. I don't know what came over me." he said.

"Like I said, forget it. I've made mistakes too you know."

Klime smiled at me. Only having seen him in battle so far the expression made me laugh slightly.

"What you laughing at?" asked Klime.

"Oh nothing." I smiled giving him a nudge on the arm.

"So what's this emerald you got like then?"

"Oh that. It's the purple one. Hold the power of wind inside it."

"One thing I've been puzzling over Klime. If Jynx gives that emerald to Klim won't this place stop floating?"

"Heh, not quite." laughed Klime.

"What you mean?" I asked slightly puzzled.

"This place doesn't actually float. It's held up by a number of pillars but Jynx has used his magic to make them invisible to it look like this place is floating."

"I see." I groaned as the magic of the situation seemed to fade away.

Klime laughed.

"Well I've got stuff to do Lynx. I'm sure I'll see you later at some point."

"Yeah maybe. Cya Klime."

We exchanged a nod and then Klime walked off humming to himself. I turned away and looked up the stairs Klim and Jynx had gone up. What I saw made me jump. Klim was tearing down them towards me and it was obviously he wasn't going to stop. I quickly spun to the side and avoided him. Good thing I have good reflexes I thought to myself.

"Ready?" he beamed.

"Yes. Come on, we got no more time to waste." I replied.

"Totally agree." he said and darted off.

What gotten into him I though as I raced after him. I was just glad I had my tails to propel me otherwise keeping up with him would have been hard. It didn't take long to get outside and we were once again standing on the mountain top looking down at the valley below. The wind was no longer blowing and a thought crossed my mind.

"Yo Klim. How about we take a shortcut…via air?" I said smugly spinning my tails and taking off slightly.

"Sure thing." replied Klim as he grabbed my arm.

I spun my tails slightly faster and soon we had taken off and were slowly heading down the mountain.

"You know this emerald Lynx…" started Klim.

"Yeah I know it. Klime explained it to me. That things got the element of wind in it." I said still fixing my eyes on a far distant reference point.

"Wind huh." I heard Klim mutter, "Think I'll give us a boost."

Boost?! Give us a BOOST?! He wasn't going to do what I though he was…

"Klim! Wai….!" I started.

It was too late though. The purple emerald Klim had just drawn activated and almost instantly an incredible wind strung up around us. I felt it rustle through my tails as our speed increased two fold in a matter of seconds.

"Whaaaaa!" I cried trying to keep my tails in formation.

"Awesome!" cried Klim.

Why that little….oooh! With my free arm I reached over and gave Klim a good hard whack across the head. I then turned my attention to flying. I needed to concentrate on staying in the air at this speed not him. Within minutes the peaks of the Frosty Mountains had passed beneath us as had the grasslands we had fought Robotnik in. I heard Klim laugh as we passed over them, I knew what he had just seem. Rage Mountain and Aqua Isle were next up as we headed along the coast.

"We've done so much since we arrived." said Klim.

"Yeah." I replied still concentrating.

Soon even the Desert of Doom and those cursed sandworms had been left behind. I started to feel more confident flying at this speed as we cleared the desert. It was hard but once you got the hang of it, it wasn't too difficult. The jungle we had met Kat in was next and my thought slowly slipped onto him. Hope he's alright I thought to myself as finally our target came into view. A small house came into view and suddenly there was a flash. The wind died away and I looked down to see Klim holding the emerald again. I gently landed in front of the house and let go of Klim.

"I'll say this Klim. That was fun but next time….warn me before you do it!" I said with a bit of irritism in my voice.

Klim just laughed and walked over to the house. All the light were out and it didn't look as inviting as it did before.

"Looks like no-one's home." said Klim.

"Yeah. Maybe getting the emerald is taking longer than we though it would?" I replied raising an eyebrow.

Much much longer, we've been away for days I thought. Klim walked over to the door and opened it. Suddenly he stopped.

"Drop your weapons and surrender!" said a very familiar voice.

"Oh god. Not that damn chao again!" I whined.

Klim appeared to be having none of it.

"A makes you think a little pipsqueak like you can tell me what to do?" he replied.

"This spear." came the reply.

Suddenly Klim took a swipe to the side and charged into the house.

"Attack!" came a cry.

"Oh just brilliant Klim." I groaned as the door slammed shut.

I looked to the side and spotted a window. I didn't want to break a window but I had no choice. I ran forwards and took a flying leap at the window feet first. It shattered in a second and to my surprise my feet connected with an attacking chaos head and sent it sailing across the room where it hit the opposite wall and fell to the floor.

"What kept you?" asked Klim blocking an attack.

"You know me. Had to plan my dramatic entrance!" I shouted drawing my sword.

Although they had attacked us I wasn't the kind of person to go about killing chao! Using the blade of my sword I blocked several attacks and then swung the side of my sword round, using a bit like a club at the annoying little blobs. Three swipes sent three of them sailing in every direction. I looked over at Klim who really looked liked like he was enjoying himself. Just then he drew out the purple emerald and his spear glowed. He started to spin his staff like as fan blade…and like a fan blade the spinning generated a huge wind inside the house. I shut my eyes to keep various light articles that had taken off out of my eyes. As I felt the wind die down I opened them. Klim was looking pleased and all the chao were out of it.

"Very nice." I commented.

"Yeah but I'm worried. Were are Sonic and Tails? More to the point where's Kat? We didn't see any of them on the way over."

"Ah don't worry. He's stronger than ever and is bound to show up somewhere. Remember the last time he disappeared?" I replied licking my lips, "Fancy a coffee?"

Klim gave me a rather odd look and then nodded. Heh I thought to myself as I made my way into the kitchen.


	13. Forward We Go!

Chapter 13 – Forward We Go!

My vision cleared slightly as I blinked them open. I slowly twisted my head to see light shining in through the drawn curtains. The memories of the previous night started to drift back to me. After our coffee break, Klim and myself had carried the KO'ed chao outside. Well he had carried them, I had used them to train up my kicking skills. I wasn't much into football but it had been fun none the less. We had stayed up a bit more waiting to see if Kat, Sonic or Tails would arrive back. They hadn't and after a bit of worried conversation by the fire we had retired for the night. To say the least I had called Tails bed. But then again I wouldn't have minded which bed I slept in. It was all good to me. I yawned and looked at the ceiling. I heard sounds from the next room.

"Klim must be up." I said quietly to myself, "I'll join him in a second.

The next thing I knew I was blinking my eyes slowly open again and about forty minutes had passed by. As I always did on a morning I had fallen sleep again. And as always happened this second sleep had woken me up fully. I didn't know how it worked but it did. I sprung out of bed and quickly put my shoes back on. I sneered at my hair in the mirror.

"Is there no way to keep you down?! Maybe I'll use industrial super glue next time?"

I picked up my sword and walked out of the room. In the hall Klim was standing there looking especially sleepy. I mean I was still a little bit but not that much.

"Looks like they haven't got back yet." he said to me gesturing at the empty lounge.

"Uh huh." I replied nodding, "I think we should go out and look for them."

"But not without breakfast." said Klim shaking his head.

He made a gesture towards the kitchen.

"Care to do the honors?" he asked.

"No way! You're helping this time!" I replied remember the previous night.

"Alright fine!" he replied looking rather glum.

Although my cooking skills were better than Klim's I had to admit that Kat's was better. We both spent the next fifteen minutes or so cooking up a small fried breakfast. I leaned back in my chair and stretched before looking over at Klim. I had already finished but Klim wasn't far behind.

"You ready to go then?" I asked as he finished a glass of orange.

"You bet. Let's go!" said Klim leaping from his seat.

I jumped up too and grabbed my sword from the counter. I slung it round my waist and walked outside. The weather had clouded over slightly and storm clouds hugged the horizon.

"I feel like a bit of running." said Klim appearing beside me, "Wanna join in?"

"Not really. I prefer to fly." I replied still looking at the horizon.

"Uh huh…I guessed as much." replied Klim, "Wanna race then?"

I smiled slightly to myself as I got ready to spin my tails.

"Though you'd never ask." I replied taking off.

"HEY! Cheater!" I heard Klim yell from below me.

My altitude increased and with it my speed. I looked down to see Klim racing along below me. I looked back up again and surged forwards. The wind rustled past my face and for the first time in a while I was more or less alone. I sighed and relaxed. This was the life. This was how I wanted to spend my days. In the air, flying in the air. No cares, no worries, nothing but the air and my thoughts. As I relaxed I found it even easier to fly. Just then a loud boom echoed around the landscape as Klim below me broke the sound barrier. A thought came to me. How was I managing to keep up with him if I wasn't going….BOOM! I almost lost my flight as the air around me shook. Without even knowing it I had broken the sound barrier. I wondered if I could cross even more. For me time seemed to have been acting oddly. As I thought small white streaks started to shoot past me. I looked ahead to see the streaks emanating from a point just ahead of me. As I watched it the streaks started to grow in number and a gentle humm filled the air around me. I felt my whole body begin to shift. It was an odd feeling. It was like bits of me were disappearing and then coming back. They were still there but I couldn't feel them. I looked back to see the streaks flying out at an alarming rate. I didn't, however have any more time to puzzle over it as a second boom came from below.

"Klim couldn't have broken the barrier twice!" I said to myself looking down.

What I saw almost made me scream. Instead of Klim I saw a flaming streak of fire screaming along below me. It had smashed straight through a tree and completely touched it. I watched it bust through a robot standing in its way and then started to slow down. I could see Eggman's base just ahead. As I did the streak slowed down to reveal Klim. I landed next to him.

"Speed freak!" I said.

"What can I say? I like running?" replied Klim shrugging.

I rolled my eyes and gave him a playful punch on the arm. We both looked at the base. Several small blue coloured blobs were scattered around the area in front of it and on the roof.

"Damn chao!" said Klim.

"Look at those on the roof. They got cannons." I said pointing.

Surely enough several large cannons covered the roof top manned by chao.

"Just perfect!" said Klim, "Listen, we can't waste our time and strength with these guys. Just rush through. Take out as many as you can and don't stop."

"You got it!" I cried drawing my sword, "BANZAI!"

I leaped forward rushing down the hill towards the waiting chao.

"CHARGE!" cried Klim as he shot down the hill past me.

Flames enveloped him again and he plowed straight through a group of chao, barbequing several of them in one go. I ran in after him and dispatched a few he had missed. I looked up to see Klim dodging a huge blast from one of the roof laser guns. As he got up several chao made a move on him from behind. I quickly drew my cyan emerald and leaped into the air. As I did a vortex of ice formed up around me and I swung my sword forward. The huge vortex turned ahead of me and shot down at the chao. They were all frozen to the spot within a split second. I had to admit my new Ice Breaker move was just plain nice. I saw Klim giving me the thumbs up before he drew his yellow emerald. A bolt of lightning shot from the sky and struck the roof cannon. It overloaded and seconds later exploded in a huge fireball. As I watched the explosion from the air I heard Klim scream. I looked down to see that one chao had found the mark and drove his spear into Klim's side. I quickly flew down as Klim quickly dispatched the remaining few chao with a carefully placed strike.

"How's that?!" he yelled at them.

"Yo Klim you're injured!" I called running up to him.

I made to take out my green emerald but Klim waved his hand at me.

"It's not that bad. Save your strength for later."

"Well ok then." I replied looking a bit worried.

Klim winked and turned to the door of the base.

"Question now is…how'd we get in?" he said.

BANG!


	14. Break In

Chapter 14 – Break In

You couldn't have got a bigger explosion if you had set off a firework in a petrol station. The force of it blew me into the air but a quick spin of my tails brought me under control as I gaped at the scene. A very large and most unfriendly looking root had decided to intervene into our fight by blowing off the main door to the base. It fired at Klim with a large laser gun but he appeared to dodge it easily. Landing quickly I jumped into the fight with a powerful strike in the robot's side. It wobbled slightly before Klim ploughed into its front knocking it over. That guy was definitely good.

"Looks like this one is a lot tougher than the rest." shouted Klim as I watched the robot get up again.

Klim was so busy shouting at me he didn't notice the robot firing again. The laser shot struck him in the side and I cringed slightly as it did. However what happened next was not what I had expected.

"Chew on this!" cried Klim as he used the purple emerald to create a tornado and blow the robot backwards into the base and out of sight.

Damn! Klim sure was a strong person not to collapse at that hit. Still he looked a badly hurt.

"Klim!" I yelled as I jogged over to him, "That looked rough. Lemme help you."

"No!" shouted Klim quickly as he pushed me away, "Save your strength for later."

I was, to say the least, totally shocked by this. Klim took a few steps forward but I cut him off quickly.

"Forget Eggman, you're more important!" I said firmly taking out my green emerald.

Klim sighed and seemed to understand what I said. I quickly focused a bit of energy into Klim and healed his wound.

"Thanks." he said rather half heartedly as he walked round me.

"No problem." I replied as I followed after him.

Entering the base it we both saw the robot that had blown up the door. It lay on the ground looking totally dead. Klim walked over to it and kicked it in the head.

"Error! Warning error!" it said as it sparked into life again.

"Dammit Klim look what you did!" I yelled at him.

Klim spun on the bot and yelled.

"I'll give you and error you heap of junk!" he cried giving the robot another sharp kick to the head.

The robot gave another bleep and shut down completely. I started to shake my head.

"Klim please be careful!" I urged.

"Yeah whatever." he replied.

I walked slightly behind Klim as we carried on into the base. Not because I was scared, I was just being cautious. We couldn't afford any slip ups and Klim seemed intent on causing no end of trouble. However trouble seemed to find us as another two robots like the one at the gate decided to introduce themselves to Klim. I watched him charge forward at one of them and quickly spun my attention to the other. A shot grazed my right ear before I could dodge and I cringed a bit.

"Damn you!" I cried launching myself forwards.

As I charged forwards a few more shots came my way but a quick spin of my tails sent my flying out of the way of them. The moment I was in range I let of a upwards Time Slash swipe with my sword. To anyone around actually watching my body would have become a white blur as I spun at almost the speed of time itself and launched another downwards Time Slash move forming a huge X on the robot. As I stopped and jumped back it started to fizzle and a laser gun dropped off its left arm. The right arm still worked though and it started firing even in its beaten state. I stepped to the side as a blast of ice shot up around me. I didn't even wait for the blast to charge this time as I dove forward in an Ice Breaker move. The tunnel of ice followed my strike as I dove my sword into the robots innards. It crackled slightly and stopped allowing me to catapult myself upwards with a back flip and jam my sword into the robots head. That was enough and the robot collapsed to the ground with a clang. It was now that I felt an explosion to my side and looked over to see the robot Klim had been attack had been reduced to a flaming corpse. I grinned broadly at him.

"Nice job." said Klim nodding down the corridor, "Let's get moving."

"Jeez Klim slow down…" I muttered to myself as I followed him.

The next corridor brought us even more robotic joy as this time a different robot stood in our way. It was built in the normal robot style but was a lot larger and covered in metal plates that stuck out like spikes. As it eyed both of us carefully so was I. This robot was different and we had to find a weak point to concentrate on. The last thing we wanted was to rush into….

My careful planning was thrown to the dogs right then as Klim charged the robot with his spear held out in front of him. A few meters before he got to it though a large blue shield appeared around the robot. Klim hit it fully force and bounced backwards away from the robot. As Klim hit the floor the shield faded and I took the opening. A quick swipe of my sword sent a huge energy wave at the robot. It hit full force in the robots torso knocking it back a few feet however the attacked only seemed to cause superficial damage. I cursed under my breath but had little time to do anything else as it opened fire on Klim. The sound of its machine gun echoed around the corridor. Klim, however, wasn't caught napping and skipped back a bit before drawing his yellow emerald and sending a huge lightning bolt at the bot. I was awe struck myself as the bolt seemed to do nothing also. The sound of the robots machine gun brought me back to reality as did Klim's scream. The green emerald was in my hand a second later and a bright green flash filled the area healing Klim's wounds but also energizing us both. I decided to try the robots rear and, as Klim launched a Deathspike at the robot, I dived round it. I was quickly rewarded by almost catching a missile in my teeth but luckily I managed to roll out of its way causing the missile to hit the wall behind me.

I looked up just in time to see Klim pile driving his way through the robots shield with some sort of fan move. The move tore into the robot and I cringed and looked away and bits of metal and circuit boards went flying. I looked back to see Klim standing in the middle of a pile of rubble.

"I really need a vacation." he said sweating.

"When we're done you can have a big one." I said walking over to him, "But not yet, come on."

Behind the robots remains, near where the missile had hit, we found a large door. We cautiously opened it and walked into the next room. It looked like a laboratory. Tubes lined the walls and other lab equipment lined the walls but the centre was clear except for one thing, Kat!

"That's far enough intruders!" he sneered as a group of chao behind him started cheering.

"KAT?! What are you doing here?!" cried Klim.

I raised an eyebrow as Kat appeared to be shocked that Klim knew his name.

"I'll ask the question! What are you doing the Great Robotnik's base?!" demanded Kat.

"Rescuing you, you stupid moggy!" I said as I took a few steps forward to join Klim.

"Don't take another step." instructed Kat.

He had now taken his yo-yo out and was casually throwing it up and down by his side. I glared at it and then at Kat. What was going on?

"What's going on Kat?" said Klim voicing my thought, "Why are you working for Robotnik?"

"Why am I working for him?" asked Kat, "You should know that!"

"No we don't!" I aid firmly, "But I seriously do not like this new attitude. Klim think Robotnik did something to him? Brainwashing maybe?"

"There's a strong chance." replied as he drew his spear.

I blinked hard. Surely he could be thinking…

"Klim what are you doing? Surely you can't be thinking…"

"Lynx what choice do we have?" he replied, "It's obvious that Kat's on Robotnik's side for some reason. And if we don't get through all our work will have been for nothing. As much as I don't want to, we have to….there's no other way."

Klim turned back to face Kat.

"Kat this is your last chance. Let us through." he said.

"Never! I serve Robotnik and I'll stop you right here! Chao attack!" cried Kat.

The chaos behind Kat suddenly leapt into the fry drawing their spears as they went. A familiar cry went up.

"Banzai!" cried one chao.

I looked at Klim to see he was already into thing and quickly drew my sword. If fighting was the only way out then it was the only way. As much as I wished it wasn't. Leaping forwards I clubbed the chao that had cried out with the end of my sword handle. The chao hit the floor hard and bounced into another that was advancing. The pair flew across the room and hit the opposite wall. For such a weak attack it had been effective. A chao went sailing across the room in front of me and I looked over at Klim for a moment. It was only a short glance though as three chao came at me. I used the yelled a congrats at Klim as I used the side of my sword as a bat to smash the three chao away. One flew left, one right and the final one also went left right into his friend as I took a few strong swings at them.

It was then that I heard a scream from Klim but had no time to follow it up a group of four more chao's came at me. I took a quick step backwards and raised my sword behind me. As I did I drew my cyan emerald and heard a voice in my head.

_"Guardian."_ it said.

_"I need your help."_ I replied.

_"I thought as much."_

_"Thank you."_

I instantly felt a surge of energy run through me. It was just like before in the floating palace when I had attacked Jynx. Damn I wish I could forget that! I surge of ice built up around me and with a step backwards I flung my sword forwards. The ice around me formed up in a split second and hurtled across the room. I had to admit I liked my new Ice Breaker move. The blast of ice shot across the room quickly turned the attacking chao into small ice statues. The blast however was unaffected by the small obstacles and continued on across the room with its full energy before smashing into the far wall. The whole area around the wall was suddenly frozen solid, it looked like some sort of ice garden.

I took the opportunity to glance over the room. All the chaos were either knocked out or frozen, thanks to me, but something else caught me eye. Klim stood in a fighting stance facing off against Kat. Klim was speaking.

"Kat please don't make us do this!" he said, "Leave Robotnik and join us again."

"Ha!" snarled Kat in reply, "You don't even know who's on top do you?!"

"Huh?" replied Klim.

Klim's answer came quickly though as in a red flash Kat changed. He turned from his usual red colour to a bright orange and seemed to glow. I was so gob smacked I was frozen to the spot like the chao around me.

"KAT?!" cried Klim in shock.

"That'll be SUPER KAT to you punk!" cried Kat as he darted at Klim.

Klim must have been as gob smacked as me because he didn't move as Kat knocked him to the floor. This brought him round quickly and he jumped to his feet only to fall over again as Kat wrapped up in the string from his yo-yo. It was then that Kat spun and darted towards me. I snapped out of my shock and readied my sword. Kat got to me and started to lay out a flurry of fast frying pan strikes at me. If I hadn't been able to slow down time slightly there would have been no way I could have blocked them all but due to my time skills I could. Kat appeared to notice this and took a few steps back. I was about to go after him when suddenly a fireball appeared in mid air and, with a fast frying pan stroke, Kat sent it flying across the room at me. I had no time to dodge this attack and the fireball struck me straight in the chest.

My body went stiff as it hit and I slumped to the ground. My entire body felt like it was being ripped apart. The pain was even worst than when I had stabbed myself in the mountains. The mountains! When Kat had tried to infuse my blade with fire to defeat that yeti! It had reacted strongly against it and Kat must have remembered. I could feel the cyan emerald screaming in my head but I couldn't scream myself. My throat had closed up and I found it hard to even breath. I couldn't even get to my green emerald. I could hear Klim and Kat talking but the words made no sense. My fur felt crisp and charred on my flesh and slowly things started to black out. It was then that a huge explosion rocked the air in the room. It ruffled my tails and brought me slightly back to reality. Another two voices had joined Klim's and Kat's.

"It's our job to protect the purple emerald. The best way we figured we could do that was to come along."

JYNX?!

"You got a bit of a head start on us though."

KLIME?!

My mind suddenly came alive again. The pain was still there but I felt slightly more alert. A few moments passed but they seemed to last forever. More speech was said and then I felt someone touch my shoulder. I felt myself being rolled over and then a familiar face was looking down at me.

"Lynx?!" said Jynx as he looked down at me.

I tried to respond but I couldn't.

"Hold still there Lynx. Everything's gonna be ok."

I felt Jynx running his hand over my front looking at the injury. I whimpered softly as he did feeling the pain slightly more as his hand brushed over the wound. He cringed a few times as he examined me.

"This is bad. Very bad." he muttered to himself.

"J….J….x." I managed to say quietly.

Jynx quickly flicked back to my head and lowered his ear to my mouth.

"Em….ald." I said.

Jynx quickly bolted upright. He ducked out of view for a moment and returned holding the green emerald. He looked at it for a second and then turned to me.

"Hold on Lynx." he said as a bright flash filled the room.

I felt the energy surge through me but there was more to it. The emerald's power was boosted by Jynx's magic. The energy was way more intense than anything I had been able to do before. The pain in my chest quickly vanished but still the energy poured into me. I started to feel refreshed, as if I'd just taken a long walk in the winter air. I found myself able to move again and with a quick movement sprung to my feet, much to the surprise of Jynx. I looked down at myself to see my fur glowing slightly but it was quickly fading. I shot my hand to my side and my sword flew from the ground to my open hand. Jynx got up from the ground and threw my green emerald at me. I caught it quickly and put it away.

"Thanks Jynx." I said.

"Thank me later, they need our help." he replied.

I looked over at Klim and Klime fighting Kat. As I watched Klim performed a Deathspike on Kat and Klime took the opportunity to rush forwards only to be tripped by Kat's yo-yo string. Klime cut the string with his daggers but as he got up he received a strike from Kat's pan sending him to the floor again. I was about to move as a huge ball of energy shot past me and hit the ground right in front of Kat throwing him backwards against the wall.

"Get off my brother!" cried Jynx as he stepped up beside me.

Brother?! What was that about? Were those two brother? But Klime had told me that originally he hadn't known Jynx! Had they been separated at birth or something? That's if they ever were brother, maybe Jynx meant it in a close friend was like Sonic and Tails? Kat suddenly broke my train of though.

"Four on one eh? Think I'll even the odd!" he said pushing something on his belt, "I need backup."

A door suddenly opened in the far wall and two robots flew out of it, one blue on red. As they came to a stop next to Kat I blinked in shock. It was Metal Sonic and Metal Knuckles. Perfect just what we need are some more stupid Sonic and Knuckles clones! The two robots looked at me with a glare so I glared back.

"We'll take the Kat." said Klime pointing at Klim.

Perfect leave the dumb robots to us I thought to myself. As Klime and Klim raced at Kat again the two robots rushed at Jynx and myself. I quickly spun to the side as did Jynx making the robots shoot between us. They separated and I found Metal Knuckles coming after me. I took a step to the side and spun throwing my tails round me. The first tail struck Metal Knuckles firmly across its chest and didn't do anything. However, the other eight piling into the first gave so much force it stopped Metal Knuckles dead and sent him flying back against the wall. The robot hit the wall with its back and cracked it badly but didn't really appear to be damaged. It came at me again and I stood my ground. As it got closer I suddenly swung my sword upwards knocking it into the air. I looked up to suddenly see Klime fly into the fight and hit Metal Knuckles while he was airborne. The robot flew across the room and hit the wall again causing part of it to crumble. Klime landed and looked at me.

"Lynx you gotta go! Kat just took off into that room and Klim followed him. He'll need you're help. Don't worry myself and Jynx will finish these imposters and join you as soon as we can." said Klime quickly.

"You got it! Hurry and be careful!" I replied.

"Just go!" I heard Jynx shout and he blasted Metal Sonic with a large bolt of energy.

I couldn't argue so I turned and ran for the other room. I ran through the door and along a corridor. I heard a couple of voices up ahead, Kat and Klim. I increased my speed using my tails to hurtle me down the corridor. The voices became clearer as I got closer.

…which is precisely why I came in here." said Kat's voice.

Damn something was going down. What was in this room? It was then that the pair came into view. Klim was staggering back from one of Kat's attacks. I quickly drew my green emerald and let its energy flow through me.

"Hold on Klim!" I yelled as I let the energy go in his direction.

As I raced into the room Klim started to glow. Suddenly the glow stopped but the energy was still flowing. Where was the energy going?

"Lynx you can't use your emerald here! That machine absorbs all powers and attacks by the Chaos Emerald." said Klim recovering slightly.

It was then that I spotted the large machine at the back of the room. It had a green glow around it like Klim had had. I quickly stopped the energy from the green emerald and the glow disappeared. So THAT'S why Kat had come in here.

"If that so then lets get rid of it!" I said.

"I'm afraid I won't let you do that." replied Kat as he stepped between us and the machine, "This ends now, you're history."


	15. Virtual Victory

Chapter 15 – Virtual Victory

Without warning Kat sprung forwards. Klim was quick to  react as he swung his spear out in front of him, probably hoping to have Kat charge into it. However, Kat was quicker. He knocked the spear aside with his pan and then followed it up with a savage kick to his lower chest. I leapt in as Klim fell over taking a diagonal swipe at him with my sword. Kat managed to block it but the way my attack was placed made it so he was in a very vulnerable position. I quickly spun to the side landing a clean slash to Kat's side.

However my triumph was short lived as I was suddenly greeted by a pan in my face.

My head spun and I fell over backwards and lost my vision for a moment. I looked back to see Klim and Kat both airborne and Klim delivering a powerful blow to Kat knocking him to the ground. I scrambled to my feet as the pair landed and Kat clobbered Klim away. As Kat got to his feet I clobbered him round the head with my sword from behind.

Klim seemed to seize this opportunity and swung his spear upwards at Kat. The move, however, was blocked at the last second and Kat spun away to the side. He was no longer between us, which was annoying, but also he was no longer between us and the Elemus.

"Lynx! GO! Get the Elemus! I'll deal with Kat." said Klim as he got to his feet.

"Stay safe Klim. Don't do anything stupid!" I replied to him as I spun.

Racing across the room, I drew my sword and swung it behind me. This Elemus machine might be able to absorb emerald related moves but let's see how it dealt with normal specials. As I ran I started to channel a bit of energy into my blade. A blue charge started to build around it.

"Let's see how you handle…huh?"

I slowed slightly as I neared the Elemus. It was a round machine consisting of a large dome at the bottom out of which a small tower rose to a sphere shaped bulge before the tower tapered off to a point. Various aerials and such like such out of it in places but these weren't what my attention was on. Several small apertures had opened in the spherical bulge. I watched as out of the holes appeared a number of gun looking devices. Gun looking devices? That didn't sound good! That definitely didn't sound good. I didn't have an y more time to think about it though as the five newly appeared machine gun turrets opened fire spraying the area I was in with bullets.

I quickly took off. I was faster in the air and now that I had nearly master flying I would probably be able to dodge more easily too. Gaining a few meters I spun to the left in flight to avoid another volley of shots that had followed my up. The glow on my blade was still there and I quickly flung it forwards sending a bright energy wave towards Elemus. The wave glanced the side of the machine cutting a small gash in its top and tearing a gun emplacement apart.

I was now hovering in a circular pattern around the Elemus facing towards it. It gave me the best position to evade and look for openings. Another lot of fire came my way and with a quick jinxing move I managed to dodge it ad get close to the machine too. The shots were still coming in but I found everything going slow again. Once again my time move was starting to happen. It still puzzled me how I managed to pull this move off. It just happened when I needed it. As time slowed down I found I could see every bullet as it flew towards me. A stream of ripples followed each one as they slowly gained on me. It was just like the Matrix bullet time. I couldn't believe how cool this was. I moved slowly upwards as a set of bullets passed slowly beneath me. Hovering above the Elemus, I wasted no time as I brought my sword above my head and dived. As I did I swung my sword down and embedded it deeply in one of the guns. It sparked and crackled but luckily for me didn't explode. Saying that it wasn't an energy gun.

Time suddenly returned to normal as I yanked my sword from the gun husk and sprung backwards off the machine and into the air. The fire was less now but it was still heavy. A charged another wave on my blade and made ready to dive in again. However before I did I felt a sudden twinge of pain in a couple of my tails. They had been shot. The pain built and I struggled to hold in a scream. The damaged tails quickly fell out of formation and slumped to my side. Luckily only a couple of my tails had been hit so I could still fly. A quick glanced revealed my tails to be shredded at the tips and closer to the base coated in blood. I grimaced slightly and then pushed it away. Diving down I took a hard strike at a third gun using the energy wave to enhance the strikes power. This time the gun did explode throwing my backwards slightly.

The explosion didn't help my tails any as a couple of them got slightly char grilled. The joint pain of the bullets and the burn coupled with my constant flight was now beginning to wear me down. Two guns remained but I was only just dodging the shots.

"Gotta…gotta keep going…." I wheezed to myself quietly.

Just then something I didn't expect happened. A glint caught my eye and a small glance revealed a long spear flying across the room. It struck a fourth gun dead on and caused it to explode in a dazzling display of sparks before the spear fell away to the side.

"Klim!" I said suddenly.

Another glance nearly made me sick as I saw Klim collapse into a heap on the floor. All these glances had not helped my dodging and the final machine gun was still blaring away. My attention quickly turned back to the Elemus but before I could do anything I heard something in my head. Time slowed to a stop as it spoke.

_"I can help."_

_"How?"___

_"Your blade.__ Merge me with your blade…"_

I knew what to do in an instant as I took out the cyan emerald. It glowed brightly but I could feel its strength wasn't there. Swinging it round in one hand I brought my blade in with the other hand. The two items suddenly met with a blinding flash. I gripped both the emerald and my sword tightly as I felt them both heat up. Energy was now flowing past me in long streams of colour as a steady whine filled the air. Suddenly I could no longer feel the emerald. I looked at my sword to see that it was no longer there. Well the handle was but the blade had gone. In its place floated the cyan emerald surrounded by a ghost like image of my blade made of energy. The energy gave a flash and suddenly expanded in length. It continued to grow and in a flash my sword reappeared. I couldn't help but stare at the sight. The bade had doubled in length and was a deep cyan colour. Near the base of the sword it bulged out to produce a gap in which the cyan emerald floated.

I spun my attention back to the Elemus. I was amazed that it hadn't fired at me but I suddenly realized why. Time was stopped! Not just slowed but completely stopped. Bullets hung in mid air as I turned to face it. I swung my sword out in front of it and a flurry of ice and snow sprung up around me. I felt a cold feeling in my tails and glanced over to find that they had all turned into ice. I fixed my gaze on Elemus a final time and growled.

"You might be able to absorb emerald attacks…but let's see you absorb an attack that doesn't exist in real time!"

Without warning my tails suddenly pulsed and flew from my body. The nine bolts of ice flew towards the Elemus and struck it. Moments later I felt a familiar feeling behind me as another set of nine normal tails appeared behind me.

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!" I screamed as I leapt forwards.

As I did I spun my tails shooting towards the Elemus in a blizzard of ice and snow. I don't remember the next few seconds. The next thing I remember was time returning to normal and, in a huge gigantic explosion that rocked the room, the Elemus exploding. I was thrown to the side and hit a wall hard before I slumped to the floor. Pieces of the machine was now scattered all over the room and small fires burned here and there.

I looked up slowly from the floor. Kat and Klim lay on the floor a few meters away surrounded in rubble. I got to my feet as best I could and scramble over to them both. I rolled Klim onto his back and check him over. He was beaten up pretty badly and had a number of nasty wounds. He was however breathing and he did have a pulse. I sighed heavily, at least that was something to be pleased about.

I then looked over at Kat. Kat was our friend but if he really had turned I wouldn't allow him to stop us. I readied my sword and slowly moved over to him. A large light was lying across him and I slowly pushed it off. I cautiously leaned forwards and checked his pulse, it was there. My next point of call was to fish through his pockets. I removed his frying pan from his hand and flung it across the room before removing the blue and red emeralds from his pockets. I put them away and then made completely sure he was out cold before I continued. I checked him over for wounds and such like. Our assault on him had been hard and he had multiple injuries all over him. It was then that I noticed something odd on his neck. Embedded in the skin on the back of his neck was a small chip. It was dinted and a bit of it had been smashed off but it still remained. A Robotnik symbol was visible on it.

"Robotnik! What's this chip for?" I puzzled.

Just then I heard someone approaching down the corridor I had come down. I stood up and gripped my sword tightly. I readied myself for an attack if any came. The steps were getting closer now and at a running pace too. Suddenly Jynx and Klime careered into the room and skidded to a halt. I must have scared them half to death.

"YARGH!" cried Klime as he stopped so suddenly he almost fell over.

Jynx skidded to a halt just in front of my sword. He looked at it and then at me and then fell over. I quickly dropped my sword and knelt down next to him. I shook him and he blinked and then looked at me for a second before screaming.

"ARGH! Lynx! Dammit!" he said trying to catch his breath, "You scared me to death."

"Sorry." I replied.

"We've dealt with those metal counterparts." said Klime as he got up.

I helped Jynx to his feet and he looked round.

"I see you got things covered here too." he said.

"Almost." I replied.

I turned back to Klim and Kat. Kat would have to wait. When and if he came round he'd have to explain himself before I did anything to him but Klim was different. I slowly removed my green emerald and knelt down next to him. I placed a hand on his shoulder and closed my eyes. For the first time in I was actually using the green emeralds healing properties outside of a battle. I was relaxed for the most part and the whole technique came much easier. Both myself and Klim started to glow a pale green colour…


	16. Final Battle

Chapter 16 - Final Battle

The heal continued making me feel warm and cozy. I was about ready to fall asleep when a yell brought me back to reality.

"I'VE HAD IT!"

I sprung back slightly startled and looked around for a second before I realized it had been Klim that had shouted. I looked down at him oddly.

"Well at least you're awake now. You came round sooner than I thought you would."

"Did you deal with Elemus?" asked Klim.

I gave a small chuckle to myself. Straight to business eh? Well ok then.

"Elemus? No sweat at all Klim. It's a pile of scrap metal now." I replied with a smile, "How else would I have been able to heal you?"

Klim sat up with a groan and looked round.

"What should we do with him?" he asked looking at Kat.

"I dunno yet Klim but I already got both his emeralds and the one from Elemus too."

"So my two, your two, Kat's pair and the one from Elemus…"

"…makes seven Klim. We have them all."

Klim looked stunned for a moment before he reacted.

"SWEET!" he cried happily.

"Not yet Klim." I replied.

"What?"

"Let's not go back yet."

"Why not?"

"I got a small score to settle." I replied looking away.

"Very well then but this'll be the last fight ok." replied Klim reluctantly.

"You got it. Jynx, Klime keep an eye on Kat for us."

"Will do Lynx. Good luck." replied Jynx.

Both Klim and myself hauled ourselves from the floor and ran across the room. At the far end, behind where Elemus had been, was an opening that led upwards. Klim motioned up the stairs.

"Up here?" he said.

"I think so. Nowhere else to go is there." I replied taking to the stairs.

As I climbed I began to wonder. Where would these stairs go? Where had Sonic and Tails gone? Where was Robotnik? The stair continued for a while and I began to think they'd never end. They did, finally, at a large metal door. We both stopped and looked at each other.

"Well this is it." I said.

"Yup." came Klim's reply.

I slowly reached forwards and touched a small panel beside the door. It beeped and the metal door slid open to reveal what was behind, the roof. We both walked threw the door a few paces before we saw our next test. A huge mech stood on the roof. When I say huge it was huge. Klim and myself barely came up to the top of the mech's foot.

"Oh my god!" said Klim slowly.

"This is not going to be as easy as I thought." I said looking up at the mech.

"You've interfered with my plans too many times!" boomed a voice from above, Robotnik, "However, you've also been a help. You've brought all the emeralds right to me and once I get rid of you there will be nothing to stop me."

"Oh yeah!" taunted Klim, "What makes you think it'll be that easy?"

"This." came a reply.

Moments later a huge gun barrel swung down to point at us both. The barrel was so big I could have walked down it with room to spare but I had no time to stare. The tip of the barrel flared with light, making ready to fire.

"KLIM! LOOK OUT!" I screamed as I dove to the side.

I rolled off to one side just as the cannon erupted causing a huge explosion and putting a huge hole in the roof. Landing on my front I rolled onto my back and looked at where Klim had been. I saw him charging the mech's foot with his spear but the attack did absolutely nothing. What's this thing armored with?! Diamond glass?! I scrambled to my feet and jumped into the air. My tails were feeling much better after the heal even if they were still a little sore. Drawing my sword I made several quick swipes in mid air and threw a number of energy waves at the mech. To my amazement each wave hit cleanly and bounced off fragmenting into sparks of light. I then noticed a flash of lightning streak across the roof and hit the mech causing only a small scorch mark. DAMN! Not even Emerald attacks were working.

"Give it up, you cannot defeat me." laughed Robotnik.

"Klim! There has to be a weakness somewhere! We have to find it." I cried.

"There is no weakness, not this time!" cried Robotnik.

As I had been yelling at Klim, Robotnik had swung the huge cannon round at me and fired. I noticed it but not in time as the blast seared past my person. The next thing I knew I woke with a start as I hit something.

"Lynx? Lynx you ok?" asked Klim.

I looked up at Klim as he held me. I guess I had fallen and he had caught me.

"Definitely felt better." I coughed in reply.

"It's over you fools!" said Robotnik.

I looked up just in time to see the massive gun pointing right at us. Klim shot to the side but with me in his arms he couldn't move fast enough. He was hit as he dodged and fell to the ground. I flew from his arms and landed a few feet away with a crunch. I could feel my strength just draining away and I just wanted to go to sleep.

"Aah, I can't take much more of this." groaned Klim as he crawled up next to me, "Lynx?"

I nodded slowly to myself. If only I could get to my emerald….wait! The Emeralds!

"Klim, we have to use the Emeralds. They're our last hope." I groaned

Klim looked stunned for a second before replying.

"What? Tell me you're not thinking of…..do you think we can really do that?" he replied.

"Normally no, but after this trip I'm ready to believe anything."

I slowly reached for and took out the four Emeralds I currently held. The cyan one was still merged with my blade but I brought it close to the others anyway. Klim took out his two and then each of the Emerald glinted brightly. I felt as though a thousand batteries had been hooked up to me and set off. Jumping to my feet every ache and pain in my body vanished in a second. I slowly raised my head and looked at the mech. My sword lay on the ground at my feet and with a swift motion I spun and grabbed it, jumping back a few feet as I did. It was then I noticed my change. My arm, which was normally white, was now a pure black colour. A quick survey found that all my white fur had gone black and the blue had gone a deep red colour. I took a look at my sword to find that it was pulsing with energy. So that's it. Both myself and my sword have a super form, amazing.

I swung my gaze to Klim for a moment. He had also changed, going a deep almost Sonic like blue colour with small white lightning bolt shaped patches all over him. Giving him a small smile I took off into the air.

"AH! I'll still destroy you no matter what you look like!" roared Robotnik.

Several rocket pods appeared on the mech's side and opened fire. I knew they were aimed at Klim but I felt as if I didn't have to look out for him this time. As I climbed a couple of missiles flew my way and I decided to test just how strong I'd become. Raising my foot back I kicked a couple of the just behind where the war heads would have been. The first missile spun back and hit the mech on the top. It didn't cause any real damage but it was fun. The second exploded as I kicked it but I felt no pain and as the explosion cleared I still hovered in mid air. I dove out of the sky towards the mech raising my sword back as I did. As I neared the mech I brought my sword down heavily on the side. The glowing blade split the mech's armour in a second and stuck in fast. I charged an energy wave on my blade and moments later the side of the mech exploded. I swung my sword round again and this time carved off a huge section of the mech's side armour. Jumping back and hovering, I started to charge my next attack. The shots fired at me slowed to a complete halt, I recognized the move from before. It was the one I had used to defeat Elemus.

"Let's see just how much more powerful this move is." I said to myself.

The landscape frosted over and soon my tails turned to ice. Swinging them forwards I threw the ice bolts at the mech and waited a second for my tails to reform. The blizzard erupted around me and I charged at the mech. The blow knocked it sideways and virtually disintegrated the entire left side of the thing. I quickly charged an energy wave on my blade and then used it to swat away a few missiles before laying into the mech's side with a mad flurry of strokes.

As I laided into the mech's left side I noticed a large bolt of energy fly across the roof and hit the right side. The mech made a few odd noises and the huge cannon dipped and went offline. Hehe! Trust Klim to find the perfect place to strike.

"No way! I can't believe this!" cried Robotnik, "Well I still have my backups. Secondary weapons fire!"

Leaping back, I saw several new missile pods and guns emerging from the mech. It was then that I noticed my fatigue. Like when I had been hit I felt like I wanted to go to sleep. I looked over at Klim who appeared to be flagging a bit too. I watched him destroy two missile pods before yelling to him.

"Klim we can't keep this up. We don't have infinite energy and if it's anything like Sonic we'll need rings." I shouted at him looking around, "And I don't see any!"

Klim quickly ploughed through another launcher before being hit. He was certainly getting sluggish and so was I.

"Dammit! We won't have enough time." he said.

"Holy cookies and cream!" came a yell from behind us, "Just what on Earth is THAT?!"

I turned to see a familiar looking red and white cat standing in the doorway, it was Kat.

"Kit Kat! You with us?!" cried Klim.

"I don't remember not being with you. " he replied, "Apart from when we parted in the mountains. But anyway what it that thing?!"

"Robotnik's new toy." I shouted quickly slicing a missile pod in two.

"Well if you're back with them you can die as well." cried Robotnik as several guns aimed in Kat's direction.

The guns fired but Kat was more nimble than anyone I'd met and easily dodged the volley.

"Lynx get to Kat! We have to get him the emeralds so he can go super too." said Klim quickly.

"You got it." I replied quickly swooping from the sky towards Kat.

As I shot towards Kat several missiles fell around me shaking me from side to side but I continued on. As I drew nearer I drew the emeralds I had and brought my sword into plain view. There was a sudden bright flash and I came to a skidding halt next to Kat. He had changed just like us. Orange fur and really light blue jeans. I gave him a small smile.

"Alright! Let's give him some!" cried Klim.

Looking back at Robotnik's mech I puzzled for a moment. We were causing damage but not enough. And if we dropped out of our super form before we'd destroyed it then we'd be finished. We needed a big attack, something huge. I began to wonder if I had a super move of any sort but Klim seemed to have other ideas.

"Let's focus our energy together. Throw everything you have at me and I'll send it back at him." he said.

"Hold on Klim! You sure you wanna do that?" I asked, "You have no idea what that kind of energy would do to you."

"We don't have any other choice. We have to bring this thing down….NOW!"

"Klim…"

"Don't worry I'll be fine. Just do it!"

"Ok then!" said Kat, "Come on Lynx lets go! Before Roboegg decided to finish us."

I really didn't want to do this. What if he got hurt? Or worse, killed? What if….? Snap out of it Lynx dammit! Just do it!

I looked up to see Kat already at work. He was glowing brightly and I could see a red coloured ball of energy forming in Klim's hands.

"FIRE!" cried Kat.

Swinging my sword round and slamming it down into my other palm I took a step backwards. I felt a strong surge of power from the emerald and my sword went a blinding blue colour. Moments later I felt it slipping away as my thoughts focused on Klim. The ball in Klim's hands went an icy blue colour as my energy merged with Kat's.

"ICE!" I cried.

A moment later the ball of energy went a yellow colour and started to crackle.

"LIGHTNING!" cried Klim.

The ball in his hands started to spin faster, changing colour frantically until at length it stopped. The ball went a white colour and an overwhelming surge of energy ripped through my body. I was sure I was going to pass out before suddenly the feeling faded and the ball erupted. First a tiny beam of energy aimed directly at the mech but then it changed. The beam expanded changing into a huge ray of energy that cleaved the giant mech clean in two. The top of the mech fell off to one side but the bottom just exploded instantly. However I only saw this happen in my peripheral vision. My mind was fixed on Klim as he suddenly dropped from his super form and collapsed. The emeralds fell from his body and clattered to the floor a few meters away. I raced to his side and shook him.

"Klim! Klim you alright?" I asked.

He didn't respond but before I could shake him again I felt a hand on my shoulder.

"Don't worry about him. He'll be fine." said Kat.

I sighed slowly as I checked for and found that he was breathing still.

"Yeah I guess so Kat. Boy that was…"

A laugh slowly broke the air.

"Don't think it's over yet fools."

Wha…what?!" I said turning.

Out of the smoke caused by the mech's lower half exploding I could see something. It hovered in the air and as it slowly moved forwards out of the smoke I gasped. It was the top half of the mech we had just fought. It hovered on several jets that had appeared out of its side. The arms were still there but now had a number of large spikes sticking out of each of its fingertips. On the top of the mech were two new cannons, not as big as the one from earlier but still large.

"But but but…" I stammered.

"HAHAHA! You thought that blast had stopped me? Think again!" said Robotnik.

The mech's arm lunged at me trying to spike me with its new claws. I jumped to the side and the claw dug deeply into the roof top causing it to cave in. It swung at me but again I dodged. I suddenly felt an odd sensation in my arms. Looking at them I saw that the black colour was fading back to white.

"No I'm changing back!" I said.

"HAHAHA! Now you're mine!" cried Robotnik.

I looked up to see the claw coming down again. I dodged a final time but the roof couldn't handle another blow like that. Splintering the entire section between the three strikes caved in. I cried out in horror as I saw that Klim was lying on this section as it caved in. I could do nothing but watch as the roof caved in with him on it. I looked up to see that Kat was springing around dodging rapid fire shots from the cannon whilst firing fireballs at the thing.

"KAT! Get Klim!" I cried.

Not waiting for a response I spun and raced to where the other two emeralds had fallen. Scooping them up as another hand strike landed behind me, I slowly felt a surge of energy. It wasn't much and I didn't have much time left. Turning back to face the mech I slowly began to focus on my energy. There had to be something powerful about this form or why else would I be able to use it? There had to be a super move of some kind here. But what? As I focused I slowly opened my eyes. The entire area had turned into one huge blizzard again. No not this move again! I needed something more! Something….WHAT THE HELL?!

I just starred straight ahead as suddenly a white fox stepped into view. It looked like he had appeared out of mid air and he looked just like me apart from having deep blue rather than cyan on his tails. As I looked around I noticed several more white foxes. Some had different coloured tail tips and some were slightly more grey or blue rather than white but they all looked like me.

"What the hell is going on?" I said.

_"Don't worry."_

_"You again!__ What's happening?"_

_"Don't worry. You asked for this and you got it."_

_"What? A super move?"_

_"Yes but be quick. You know what to do."_

The emerald went quiet again and I suddenly realized what to do. I looked to the side of me. A white version of myself with orange tail tips looked back and smiled. I smiled back before looking back at the frozen mech. I raised my sword above my head and spoke.

"Let's end this….CHARGE!"

I sprung forwards running towards the mech. A flurry of calls erupted and I saw several other versions of myself charging forwards too. A number stayed back charging long distance moves like my Ice Breaker move and a few I didn't even know about. My blade turned an almost black blue colour as the energy charged on it. The fox next to me suddenly started to move in slow motion. Leaping into the air and raising his sword he looked like something out of the Matrix. So that's what my Time Strike move looks like!

I looked back at the mech and jumped at it swinging my sword.

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!" I screamed.

The cry was echoed by the other foxes before all our moves contacted with the mech at the exact same time. Everything went white and then faded to black…


	17. Homeward Bound

Chapter 17 - Homeward Bound

"Lynx, Guardian wake up."

I groaned slightly and opened my eyes before quickly shutting them again. My head felt like it had been put through a press of some kind. My fur tingled with an odd sensation and for a time I didn't quite know what it was. Sitting up slowly I saw that my surroundings were of a cyan colour. A small smile spread across my face, for I was back in my thoughts with the emerald. Funny how some things made complete sense and boggled your mind at the same time.

"Glad to see you're awake."

"Yes well I feel like a train hit me." I replied.

"Understandable."

"Look, what's the whole deal with this?"

"You tell me."

"Huh?!"

"You know better than me what is going on around us."

"Eh? Care to run that logic by me again, because I think it took a wrong turn! If I'm here it means I must be unconscious or something."

"See you do know more about what is going on than me."

"This is plain screwy."

"Possibly but then stranger has happened."

"Not to me, I mean what is going on? Since when does an email turn you into a white kitsune with grand master sword skills?"

There was no response and I rolled my eyes.

"Ai! Sometimes…" I complained.

"I don't know the answers to your questions but you'll find your answers eventually."

"Ok fine but now I got something else to ask. If this all works out and I manage to get back to my world…what's going to happen to you?"

The cyan colour pulsed around me.

"I don't want you to go but you must. This is not your world after all."

"Can't someone else be your guardian?" I asked.

"Like?"

"Jynx maybe? As far as I can tell he's this world's equivalent of me."

"Jynx?"

"Oh for cripes sake! That grey fox that looks just like me and throws very painful fireballs around."

"I've not met him before."

"I'll be sure to introduce you later."

Just then a faint green glow started to spin around my body and a warming tingle entered me. I shook my head slowly and gave a short laugh. I knew this feeling all too well. The green emeralds healing powers were very unique.

"Looks like my time is up." I said.

"Yes. Farewell Guardian."

"Ah don't be so sad, I might see you again. Heh! I've enjoyed myself here and if at all possible I'll come back for a visit."

"Thank you Guardian."

"Bah! No need to thank me, you've helped me far more than I have you."

The glow around me started to spin faster and soon I found the world around me fading from view until…

…I gave a small groan and opened my eyes slightly. I was met by the sight of a metal plated wall and floor. I groaned slowly and blinked hard remembering everything that had just happened. Slowly I sat up and looked around. I was in the Elemus room and looking up I saw that the roof was a huge hole. I couldn't hear or see anything of Robotnik at all but then that wasn't my primary concern at that moment. I continued to look around the room and then finally rolled over and stopped. Klim lay next to me doubled in apparent pain with the green emerald in his hand.

"Holy…"

I quickly swiped up the green emerald from him and focused on it. My own injuries seemed to be doing fine, obviously Klim had healed me, and I found myself able to focus solely on the emerald. Klim was soon glowing green and I held the field steady for a moment before stopping. Putting the emerald away I called to Klim.

"Klim, yo Klim?"

Klim gave a moan and slowly opened his eyes. I cocked my head slightly as I looked at him. He smiled at me but I was sure it was a fake one.

"Hey Lynx." he replied.

"You looks like hell." I said.

"Yeah well I feel like it too."

Klim started chuckling and I soon found myself chuckling too. It was at moments like this that I remember how contagious laughter is. The chuckling became laughing and the laughing roaring! I keeled over backwards and started rolling on my back slightly, my tails flapping around all over as I laughed myself stupid. I guess we were both just thankful for each other's safety or something but it felt good to laugh after the past few days.

"He he hoo boy!" chuckled Klim as he started to calm down slightly.

I was still chuckling to myself I always found it hard to stop laughing.

"So what now?" I heard Kat say as I finally stopped laughing.

"Well Robotnik's out of it, we trashed any plans he has for the future. So I guess…we should head home." replied Klim.

"How?" asked Kat.

"Well we gotta form one of those portals to our world. That journal we found said that the seven Chaos Emeralds would provide enough energy to do that." replied Klim.

"Man! Hard to believe all the stuff we've been through. All the way from that slimy thing in the jungle to here." I said sitting up and looking round, "Speaking of which where'd Jynx and Klime go?"

"They showed up while you two were out of it. They said they'd found Sonic and Tails and were taking them home." said Kat.

"Guess we should head back too and at least say bye." said Klim.

"Sounds good to me." I replied getting up.

"Righto." agreed Kat.

"Let's go then." finished Klim.

We all turned and slowly wandered from the base. I kept thinking about what was next as we walked but I guessed it'd all work out in the end. We soon left Robotnik's base far behind and Sonic and Tails house soon appeared on the horizon.

"Well there we are." said Klim, "Wonder if we'll see it again."

"We better!" I said stepping up the pace slightly, "I got plans to come back here if I can."

"You might not be able to but who knows eh?"

"True, very true."

Entering the house we found Jynx and Tails talking at the table and Sonic cooking in the kitchen. Klime was leaning on the back wall looking like a loner as always. The next few minutes were filled with congratulations, thanks and stories. Sonic and Tails told us about what had happened to them, apparently they had gone to get the grey emerald and met up with Elemus themselves only that time it had gotten the better of them. They'd woken up in the prison cells chained to the wall with energy binders and had hung there until Jynx and Klime had rescued them. It was kinda amazing to think that I'd accomplished something the duo hadn't been able to do. Granted for some reason I seemed to be some sort of super fox but that was beside the point. Klim for the most part remained quiet with a distant look in his eyes leaving myself and Kat to retell our little story. After we were done I approached Jynx and tapped him on the shoulder. He turned to look at me with a smile.

"You certainly tell a good tale." he said.

"Or nine." I replied with a chuckle, "Listen I need to talk to you about something."

"Oh? What?"

"Come into the other room."

Jynx looked puzzled as I led him into another room and turned round.

"I gotta show you something Jynx." I said taking out the cyan emerald.

Jynx rose an eyebrow.

"Lynx that's an emerald, I've seen them before you know. Hell I guard one of them." he said.

"Yeah but have you been guarding the right one?" I asked.

"Huh?"

I stepped forward and slapped the cyan emerald into his hands.

"Here have a good look."

"What?"

"Just look at it ok."

"Um….ok."

Jynx looked at the emerald slowly and for a minute nothing happened. Slowly he looked up at me again.

"I'm not seeing anything." he said.

"Just look at it." I replied.

Jeez! It was like telling an infant school kid not to eat a pie or something! For a while we both stood there, myself looking at Jynx and him looking at the emerald. At length Jynx expression started to change, a puzzled look crossed his face followed by an astonished one. Then slowly his eyes fluttered closed and he stood perfectly still looking at the emerald with his eyes closed. I watched him closely for a while before his eyes slowly opened. For a moment he stood just looking at the emerald in amazement before looking up at me.

"Well?" I asked.

"That was…was….what was that?!" he asked.

"That, my alternate self, is the presence of the cyan emerald."

"Woah…"

"Yup that's how I was."

"It…I mean…this is what…happened to you?"

"Yup…numerous times."

"So what you said back at the castle really was true."

"What you didn't believe me?"

"Well I accepted what you said. I never thought any of it was really true…until now."

"Yes well, there'll be plenty of time to get acquainted later on. For now let's get back to the others."

"Ok…man I need a drink."

"If you're anything like me don't have too much."

As we entered the room I saw Klim and Tails talking about something, guess Klim decided to wake up at long last.

"So you'll be leaving soon?" asked Klime from the corner.

"I guess so." I replied, "We've beaten Robotnik and everything. Not really any reason for us to be here anymore."

I gave a small smile as I said that. Maybe there was a reason for me to stay but I now knew that there was someone who could fill that job for me.

"Plus we have to get home." I added.

"I've not had a chance to say thanks yet." said Sonic finishing a chilidog, "You guys really helped us a lot."

"Oh yeah!" put in Tails, "You'll be sure to come back and visit right."

"Well…" said Klim sounding a bit unsure.

"Count on it!" I said confidently, "If there's a way I'll find it."

The room fell silent, everyone thinking about what had happened and where to go next. Finally Kat spoke.

"Shall we go then?" he asked.

"I guess so." replied Klim.

"Probably best to do it outside." I said, "Dunno what's gonna happen do we?"

"Just what are you going to do anyway?" asked Tails.

"No idea! But whatever it is we'll figure it out." replied Klim strolling from the house.

I followed him as did everyone else in the house. Once outside Klim and Kat set their emeralds down on the ground. I set the green one down and then took out the cyan one. I looked at it for the longest time but finally set it down with a small sigh. Guess this was the end of my bond with it. Walking over to Klim and Kat I spoke.

"Well this is it." I said.

"Yes." replied Klim.

"So?"

"So let's do this. Everyone focus on your own emerald ok."

I turned and took a deep breath. I closed my eyes for a second and then opened them and looked at the cyan and green emeralds. As I stared they began to glow and rise from the ground. The other emeralds were also glowing and after a short moment a huge beam of energy shot up into the sky. I followed it as it rose high into the sky and soon I couldn't see the top any more. Looking back down I relaxed my focus. The beam was now pulsing each of the emeralds colours in turn.

"Ok guys, I'll go first." said Kat taking a few steps forwards, "Sorry for all the trouble I've caused."

"Think nothing of it Kat." smiled Klim.

"Yeah, wasn't your fault." I agreed.

"Wait a minute!" cried Tails suddenly, "How do you know that beam will take you home?"

"We don't!" smiled Kat, "Half the fun of a mystery is not knowing what's gonna happen. I'll see you around guys."

With that he stepped into the beam and vanished from view.

"I'm next." said Klim.

"Klim wait a second." I said.

"Yeah?" said Klim turning round.

"I've been thinking. After this…things just won't be the same, you know. I mean all this, our adventure, our change, it seems like a dream but it's not…maybe. I mean I've done things I've always dreamed about doing in the last few days."

"Yeah I know. I guess chatting online will never seem the same again huh?"

"Oh yeah, just one thing."

"Yup?"

"When we get back….send me a shed load of email ok." I chuckled before thinking of something else, "Especially during thunder storms."

"Count on it. If there's a way to get back we'll be sure to find it. Later Lynx, bye everyone."

With that Klim turned and stepped into the beam, vanishing from sight in a flash. I stood for a moment thinking about our adventures before stepping up to the beam myself. I turned and looked at the gathering.

"Take good care of it Jynx." I said.

"Count on it." he replied.

Everyone else looked at us with a bit of puzzlement but I guess Jynx would tell them in time.

"Well this is good bye guys. I've had a time and a half I can tell you." I said.

The group gave me a smile and I couldn't help but give a broad grin at Tails before I took a step back and made everything fade from view.


End file.
